Okuzeka
Healthcare Management vocabulary · Patient Safety and Risk

Patient safety

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

nounCore term

In healthcare management, patient safety means: The prevention of avoidable harm to patients during care, through safe systems, clear procedures and a culture of learning from mistakes.

In Turkish: hasta güvenliği

How it is used

Used for the whole field and before other nouns: patient safety incident, patient safety officer, patient safety committee. Managers say that something improves, threatens or puts patient safety at risk.

Example sentences

  1. Short staffing on night shifts is now our biggest patient safety concern.

  2. The patient safety committee meets monthly to review serious incidents.

Common collocations

  • improve patient safety
  • patient safety incident
  • patient safety culture
  • patient safety committee
  • put patient safety at risk
  • adverse eventAn unintended event during healthcare that harms a patient and is caused by the care given rather than by the patient's illness.
  • incident reportA written record of an event that harmed, or could have harmed, a patient, visitor or member of staff, sent so that it can be investigated and learned from.
  • near missAn error or unsafe situation that was noticed and stopped before it could reach or harm a patient.
  • safety cultureThe shared attitudes, beliefs and habits in an organisation that decide how openly people report errors, speak up about risks and learn from mistakes.
  • risk assessmentA careful look at what could cause harm in a task, place or situation, how likely and serious that harm is, and what controls are needed to reduce it.

More terms: Patient Safety and Risk

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level:

This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.