Learning from HSE approach to tackling antibiotic resistance could be adopted to improve other areas of patient safety – HIQA

Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published an overview report on its monitoring of public acute hospitals during 2018. In 2018, HIQA carried out 38 inspections in public acute hospitals to assess the quality of care in internationally-recognised areas of patient safety risk, including infection prevention and control, and medication safety. HIQA’s Head o Healthcare, Sean Egan, said: “Our findings in 2018 demonstrate improvements in how a number of key patient-safety concerns were managed — in what is often an extremely challenging environment for patients, staff and management. In particular, the enhanced national approach taken by the HSE in response to the increase in the superbug CPE (Carbapenemase Producing Enterobacterales), together with a targeted increase in public funding to address this issue, played a significant role in improving the management of this key risk to patients.

“However, recurring and persistent issues continue to hamper the delivery of the best possible care in our hospitals. During 2018, HIQA repeatedly found widespread variation in the effectiveness of medication safety programmes across the hospitals inspected. Medication safety has a near universal impact on patients and therefore must be better prioritised across all Irish hospitals.