The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) strongly supports the goals and direction of the National Patient Safety Foundation’s (NPSF’s) Call to Action and widespread adoption of the public health framework described in “Preventable Health Care Harm Is a Public Health Crisis and Patient Safety Requires a Coordinated Public Health Response.”

The APSF serves as the primary safety organization for more than 100,000 anesthesia professionals in the United States and is dedicated to improving the safety of all patients undergoing surgical and diagnostic procedures while anesthetized and during their perioperative care. These anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologist assistants are involved in the full spectrum of perioperative care, ranging from preoperative assessment through intraoperative care to the provision of critical care services and pain management. Since its inception in 1985, the APSF has provided more than $10 million to support perioperative patient safety research. Through its publications and conferences, the APSF has a worldwide impact and works closely with health care professional societies to advocate for practices that improve perioperative patient outcomes.

In joining the NPSF in their patient safety endeavors, the APSF Newsletter, website (www.apsf.org), and other social media sources will periodically disseminate updates from the NPSF for this coordinated effort among multidisciplinary groups at reducing patient harm.

Sincerely,
Mark A. Warner, MD
President

NPSF Urges Call to Action on Preventable Health Care Harm

We will all be patients someday, yet evidence suggests that preventable harm in health care is a leading cause of death and morbidity in the US. As a reflection of APSF’s commitment to advancing safe care and elevating patient and workforce safety as a core value, we are among the early endorsers of the National Patient Safety Foundation’s new Call to Action: Preventable Health Care Harm Is a Public Health Crisis and Patient Safety Requires a Coordinated Public Health Response. The Call to Action builds on successful efforts to reduce health care-associated infections and takes advantage of critical lessons learned. NPSF proposes a public health approach to guide collective efforts and calls on health care leaders and policymakers to initiate a coordinated response to drive the collective work needed to ensure that patients and those who care for them are free from preventable harm. By initiating a public health approach and working together to implement it, health care leaders and policymakers can accelerate progress in patient safety and establish the infrastructure needed to ensure that patients and the health care workforce are free from preventable harm across the health care spectrum.

Read more and download the full NPSF Call to Action document at http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.npsf.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/NPSF_CallToAction_
PubHealth.pdf?hhSearchTerms=%22preventable+and+harm%22.