Newly Published Patient Safety Book is Definitive Resource for Health Care

The first in-depth patient safety book written with the goal of assisting health-care providers and leaders in understanding patient safety principles and implementing strategies was published in May 2004.

"Patient safety is a critical component of health care," said Jacqueline Byers, the lead editor and contributing author of "Patient Safety: Principles and Practice." "This is the first book that describes evidence-based patient safety strategies for a wide variety of patient populations encompassing the life span, practice settings and research subjects."

Byers, a University of Central Florida associate professor in the School of Nursing, is an expert in the field of patient safety, having extensive quality management experience and numerous publications and national presentations on the topic since 1994.

"Everyone in the United States has either experienced a medical error or knows someone who has had a medical error," Byers said. "Medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States and cost over $37 billion per year, with 2.4 million added hospitalization days, not to mention the physical and emotional toll."

The publication of the 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System," created a media frenzy when it concluded that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people in American hospitals each year. A litigious society and multi-million dollar jury awards can create an atmosphere of secrecy within health-care organizations, or a culture of blame and shame. Sharing lessons learned from near misses and medical errors to avoid future similar events in other health-care organizations has become essential to patient safety.

There are several well-known "celebrity" cases of medical errors, such as the Florida case of Willie King, who had the wrong limb amputated, or the Duke University case of Jesica Santillan, a 17-year-old girl who died after she was given a heart and lung transplant that was incompatible with her blood type. Oftentimes a medical error may not be life threatening or irreversible, but is instead a sign of a breakdown within a health-care system.

Previewed in the book's introduction, the first section provides an overview of concepts and principles related to why errors occur and provides strategies for practitioners to address various error-prone situations and processes.

The second section focuses on putting patient safety principles into practice. Written by experts in their fields, nine chapters target evidence-based practice, using quality tools and technology, putting patients in charge of their health care, nurse staffing and improving the work culture and the role of risk management, such as the public disclosure of errors.

Specific clinical examples for different patient populations are discussed in section three, building on real-world examples that can be used as models. Included are special populations such as children, the elderly and the mentally ill, the last of which was not addressed by the IOM Report.

Each chapter in the book is filled with resources such as relevant Web sites, exemplars for application, checklists for practitioners and other tools for developing a cutting-edge patient safety program.

"The thing that's definitive about this book is that people can really use it as a turnkey resource," Byers said. "It is a guide to practice, a reference work and a potential textbook."

Byers' co-editor and contributing author, Susan V. White, has provided leadership on patient safety to both the Florida Hospital Association and the American Hospital Association and has more than 20 years of experience in health-care administration, management and clinical roles.

"Patient Safety: Principles and Practice" is published by the award-winning Springer Publishing Company and is available online at www.springerpub.com .

--Kathryn Podolsky