Patient safety in emergency care

Patient safety is an essential dimension of quality in Emergency Departments (EDs). The incidence of appearance of adverse events in these departments is estimated at between 1.6 and 14% according to different studies and methodologies. The strategies for achieving a safe clinical practice in EDs involve policies aimed at improving safety in the use of medication with special emphasis on the administration and on the reconciliation of the medication, as well as on the employment of high risk drugs; on preventing nosocomial infection due to emergency care, with special importance manual hygiene; on improving patient identification; on improving communication and information, especially during patient transfers; on the prevention of specific risks; and, above all, on creating a climate and culture of patient safety in EDs. Different proactive and reactive tools are available for evaluating patient safety in EDs. There is an outstanding need to publish the system of event notification to facilitate analysis of such events and the subsequent development of improvement actions in EDs.