Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, has launched the first patient safety programme in the UAE.

The programme, aimed at promoting patient safety within the hospital and local community, is also running a new safety awareness campaign.

“The safety campaign will educate staff members on how to effectively use the international patient safety goals (IPSG) and to improve patient safety,” said Steve Matarelli, chief clinical officer at Tawam. “It will consist of various events and activities throughout 2009 and will exemplify and promote safe, high quality patient care in accordance with the JCIA guidelines.”

“With thousands of deaths each year around the world due to preventable medical errors, patient safety can no longer be pushed aside,” added Matarelli. “Patient safety is an explicit organisational goal that should be embraced by management and highlighted throughout the year to every member of staff and to every patient that comes through our doors.”

The first patient safety awareness campaign for 2009, which took place last week, included several educational activities as well as a CME session about patient safety. It also included checking medication for sell-by-dates, distributing medication safety pamphlets, having a pharmacist available to answer questions in the main lobby and an hour long session on medication safety for all of Tawam’s pharmacists. –TradeArabia News Service