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Common Patient safety Risk in the ED

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Course Content
Why Patient safety Matters in the Emergency Room
Reinforce urgency with local context (e.g., Ridge Hospital incident in the media) to connect emotionally. Fast-paced, high-risk environment → errors can be fatal. African EDs face staff shortages, overcrowding, and limited resources.
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Why does patient safety matter in the Emergency room?
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Patient safety Essentials for ED
Common Patient Safety Risk in the ED
Workplace violence affects staff safety. The lesson shows where things go wrong most often so staff can recognize red flags early.
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Common Patient safety Risk in the ED
WHO Patient safety Goals for Emergency Care and the Swiss cheese model of safety.
These are the safety goals by the WHO recommendation. The Swiss Cheese model is a simple explanation - No one mistake causes harm. It's usually a chain of small failures. Staff must act as barriers, not holes.
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WHO Patient safety goals & Swiss cheese model
Patient Safety Essentials
These are the non-negotiable basics every Emergency Department team member must master.
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Patient Safety Essentials
Case Vignette
Team work & communication at the ED
Strong communication saves lives and reduces conflict, especially in high-pressure ED Situations. Remind staff that a safe, protected team can provide safer patient care.
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Teamwork and communication at the ED
Tools and checklist
Printable Patient Safety checklist
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Printable patient safety checklist
Patient safety Essentials in the Emergency Department.
  • WHO: Patient harm is the 14th leading cause of death globally.
  • 1 in 10 patients worldwide is harmed while receiving care.
  • Workplace violence appears to be a common occurrence in most hospitals in Africa. In Ghana, ED overcrowding and safety challenges are reported in Accra hospitals. This has a direct negative impact on healthcare workers and their working environment, and indirectly on the patients.

Some common patient safety risks at the emergency department include; 

  • Mis-triage (wrong patient priority)
  • Medication errors
  • Delayed diagnosis
  • Inadequate monitoring
  • Poor communication during handover

For continuous discussion, please add to the risk. 

Urgent attention from all stakeholders is needed to minimise the prevalence of these incidents.  

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