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WHO Patient safety goals & Swiss cheese model

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  3. Patient safety Essentials in the Emergency Department.
  4. WHO Patient safety Goals for Emergency Care and the Swiss cheese model of safety.
  5. WHO Patient safety goals & Swiss cheese model
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 Safety Goals for Emergency Care

The WHO has some goals to promote patient safety. There are the National Patient Safety Goals organised by established organisations like the Joint Commission International (JCI). The following goals are essential for emergency care. 

  1. Correct patient identification
  2. Effective communication
  3. Safe medication practices
  4. Prevent infection
  5. Reduce harm from high-risk situations

The Swiss cheese model of safety, developed by James Reason, is a risk analysis framework that illustrates how accidents occur when multiple layers, like slices of Swiss cheese, have holes (weakness) that align, allowing a hazard to pass through and cause an incident. 

In this model, the slice of Swiss cheese is symbolic of a given measure taken to minimise risk. Each slice is like a line of defence against an incident. The four layers of failures were described by HFACS as

1. Unsafe Acts

2. Preconditions for Unsafe Acts

3. Unsafe Supervision 

4. Organisational influences

In healthcare, each slice represents the defence integrated into the design of a system, that are designed to prevent patient safety errors from occurring. Hence, staff should act as barriers, not holes. 

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