Quality and safety

Patient safety

Patient safety is of current interest in the media; unintentionally, patients may run risks of an adverse outcome in Dutch hospitals.

In the Bronovo Hospital, patient safety has always been an integral and important part of the quality system. Bronovo wants to be frank about the risks involved in patient care and any possible incidents that might occur. Staff members are obliged to report incidents or near-incidents to the patient safety committees that have been appointed in Bronovo so that causes of incidents are carefully examined. If proved necessary, a care process will be revised as to prevent any such incidents from re-occurring. By proceeding in this manner it is ensured that practices in the hospital are carried out in such a way that no mistakes will be made on account of shortcomings in (the structure of) the care process.  We are making great efforts to introduce a safety management system VMS¹  that supports these practices.

National safety programme
By introducing the safety management system, we join the National Safety Programme of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports.² 
In June 2007 the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sports presented the National Safety Programme ‘Prevent damage, work safely’. In this programme several groups announced their wishes to improve safety in the Dutch hospitals by 50% in five years’ time by offering a supportive safety programme to the hospitals. This programme was a result of collaboration with the Healthcare Inspectorate (IGZ ³ ), the Dutch Association of Hospitals (NVZ ⁴ ), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), the Association of Medical Specialists (Association), the National Expertise Centre for Treatment and Care (LEVV⁵ and Netherlands Nurses & Carers (V&VN ⁶ ) number of networks were set up within this national programme. This resulted in close collaboration, which led to more safety and improved safety guarantees for patients in the region. For more information please refer to www.vmszorg.nl

¹ VMS = ‘veiligheidsmanagementsysteem’ = safety management system
² VWS = ‘Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport’= Health, Welfare and Sport
³ IGZ = ‘Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg’ = Healthcare Inspectorate
⁴ NVZ = ‘Nederlandse Vereniging van Ziekenhuizen’= Dutch Association of Hospitals
⁵ LEVV = ‘Landelijk Expertisecentrum Verpleging & Verzorging’ = National Expertise Centre for Treatment and Care
⁶ V&VN = Verpleegkundigen & Verzorgenden Nederland = Netherlands Nurses & Carers