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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The 35th issue of "HA Risk Alert" was published today (October 31) by the Hospital Authority (HA) as a risk management and communication initiative to further strengthen the reporting and monitoring of medical incidents in public hospitals.
In the Foreword of this issue, the Chief Manager (Patient Safety and Risk Management) of the HA, Dr Rebecca Lam, said that patient safety forums, previously held biannually at the HA Head Office, had extended to various public hospitals and attracted nearly 900 health-care staff since March this year. The positive feedback from colleagues reflected their commitment to patient safety. She added that the HA had shared the medical incidents and recommended improvement measures with relevant Coordinating Committees as a means to building a safety culture.
In the second quarter of 2014, there were 13 sentinel events reported, including five cases of retained consumables and instruments, a case of a medication incident and a case of wrong side procedure. The reported events also included six cases of patient suicide. Subsequent to root cause analysis, recommendations have been made and shared in this publication to avoid the recurrence of similar events in future.
During the reporting period, there were 18 reported serious untoward events, comprising 15 medication incidents and three cases of patient misidentification. Among the medication incidents, the nine cases of overlooking known drug allergies were analysed by their frequency of occurrence in various drug types.
The publication has been distributed to all health care professionals in public hospitals for continuous quality improvement purposes. It can also be accessed by the public at www.ha.org.hk/riskalert.
"HA Risk Alert" is published on a quarterly basis and posted on the HA website every last working Friday in the months of January, April, July and October. The next issue is scheduled to be published a week earlier on January 22, 2015, to dovetail with the publication of the Annual Report on Sentinel and Serious Untoward Events.
Ends/Friday, October 31, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:16
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