“Patient safety is one of the determinants of the quality of care and is therefore a priority objective for every healthcare service. However, the development of effective interventions is founded on a real understanding of organizational issues, requiring a widespread culture of data analysis that allows for the implementation of preventive measures and procedures for adverse events based on a systemic approach and the collection of lessons learned from these events.”
The Clinical Risk Coordination Committee of the Health Commission of the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces has developed a technical framework document to contribute to the systematization of activities related to healthcare functions and provide a starting point for reflections and future developments. Patient safety is positioned within the perspective of an overall improvement in the quality of service provision.
But how can performance be increased if healthcare management is constantly in an emergency phase? Perhaps, thanks to the incoming funds for healthcare, we are approaching a turning point.
The empowerment of professionals is an indispensable tool to ensure the provision of effective and safe care. Significant progress has been made in recent years, but the pillars of an efficient system must certainly include: data reliability, risk mapping, and the safety of patients and operators.
A high degree of digitization, especially in management processes, the use of lean solutions, and increased responsiveness of entire structures through integrated management systems for departments and units must become the norm, not the exception.
Italian healthcare is finally close to a real modernization process, which will primarily benefit doctors and healthcare workers as they will have new and better tools to work with. Managing waiting lists, medical and nursing services, patient information, and telemonitoring are all areas where much work remains to be done. Fortunately, our doctors are professionals whose competence is widely recognized, and the spirit of sacrifice of healthcare workers was dramatically demonstrated during the Covid-19 crisis. We have the foundations, and now it seems we have some resources to make a qualitative leap that could truly position us at the top of the European system.
Succeeding in this area would not only mean overcoming the post-Covid challenge but would also allow us to become a reference point for the most prestigious healthcare systems. We believe that Italian healthcare deserves this.
