Safe blood transfusions in Italy

There have been no HIV or Hepatitis infections from blood transfusions in the last 10 years in Italy. More than three million transfusions of blood components were made in 2015, with 1709 positive cases of HIV or Hepatitis detected in 1691 donors, who were therefore...

The economics of patient safety

The latest report in the OECD’s series ‘Better policies for better health’ is “The Economics of Patient Safety: strengthening a value-based approach to reducing patient harm at national level”. It makes the point that a principal...

The cost of unsafe care

Given the growing importance of patient safety for both health systems and patients, it is necessary to assess the impact of patient safety efforts and to develop priorities for action. In addition to increased cost of healthcare services, unsafe care also leads to...

Anti-microbial stewardship

About one third of hospital patients are prescribed antibiotics and up to 50{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of their use is unnecessary or inappropriate.  Whilst some EU countries have made significant strides in the control of...

Health MEPs propose blueprint for safer healthcare

Between 8{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} and 12{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of patients admitted to hospitals in the EU suffer adverse events such as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs),...