Editorial: Patient Safety: Delivering Cost-Contained, High Quality, Person-Centered, and Safe Healthcare

摘要

World Health Organization defines patient safety as the absence of preventable harm andthe prevention of errors/adverse events in healthcare (1). Despite stakeholders’ unanimousconsideration that patient safety is a vital principle of healthcare delivery, it remains a concernacross health systems worldwide. Across the continuum of healthcare, every process is potentiallysubjected to adverse events, which may originate from faults/errors in clinical and operationalpractices, products, procedures, or systems.This Research Topic reflects the complexity facing patient safety. It also reflects on the challengesinvolved in delivering cost-contained, high quality, person-centered, ethically sound, and safehealthcare. The contributions project the complexity and multidimensionality of patient safety byhighlighting its facets. These include healthcare managers’ and leaders’ role in prioritizing safetyclimate for better patient outcomes, and the importance of innovation and new technologies inmedicine to drive the patient safety agenda, which in turn leads to the debate of economic efficiencyby containing costs through error minimization and waste reduction. The topic discusses the use ofcomplementary and alternative therapies, as well as over-the-counter drugs—which a closer lookreveals that these day-to-day practices cannot be ignored. Patient safety also depends on smartdecision-making processes and ethical provider-patient relationships. The articles can be groupedinto: (i) the role of leadership in ensuring safety climate and clinical performance; (ii) economicefficiency, innovation, and new technologies; (iii) complementary and alternative medicine; (iv)decision-making; and (v) ethics.