This course aims at obtaining knowledge and basic skills of improving healthcare quality and patient safety, from the stakeholder perspectives of healthcare organizations, healthcare providers and patients. In addition to lectures, case studies, group work assignment (+ presentation and discussion) and debate are designed for better understanding of concepts and approach application.
By the end of this course, students will be able to explain basic concepts of healthcare quality and safety; and to apply the learned approaches and techniques for improvement.
Healthcare quality, patient safety, human factors approach, human error, safety management
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
In each class, fundamentals of related topics, approaches, methods and techniques will be lectured. Small quiz and discussion related to the topic will be performed for better understanding. In addition, group work will be assigned to enhance students' application of the learned skills and knowledge to analyze and then solve the real-world problems.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Guidance: Introduction to Healthcare Quality and Safety | Understand an overview of healthcare quality and safety, its principles and basics. |
Class 2 | Healthcare Quality from Patient Perspective | Understand the definition and dimensions of healthcare quality, and the perceptions from patients as an important healthcare stakeholder. |
Class 3 | Medical Competence and Patient Safety | Understand competence as individual virtue or system issue, and perfection versus the inevitability of mistake. |
Class 4 | Safety Management and Safety Management System (SMS) | Understand the definitions of safety management and SMS, safety policy, assurance and promotion. |
Class 5 | “Human Error” in Health Care | Understand basics of human errors and their related issues. |
Class 6 | Safety Culture | Understand safety culture and related issues; and apply safety culture assessment to an actual setting. |
Class 7 | Practical Tools for Creating Safety | Understand safety reporting, organizational learning, and adverse event investigation. |
Class 8 | Accountability and Learning from Failure | Understand Just Culture as the culture of learning and accountability, the second victim and how to disclose. |
Class 9 | New Approach to Safety Management | Understand pros and cons of traditional approach of risk management; nature of Safety-I and Safety-II; and principles of Resilience Engineering. |
Class 10 | Presentation of Group Work | Gain understanding of quality and safety issues, and application skills of the approaches based on group work and discussions. |
Class 11 | Presentation of Group Work | Gain understanding of quality and safety issues, and application skills of the approaches based on group work and discussions. |
Class 12 | New Technology Applied in Health Care | Understand the application of EMR, EHR and AI in health care, and the effects of the new technology on healthcare quality and safety. |
Class 13 | Patient Handoff | Understand the types and tasks of patient handoff, and the quality and safety of patient handoff. |
Class 14 | Telemedicine | Understanding the definition of telemedicine and its widely adoption due to Covid-19. Discussions and debate are designed to understand its benefits and challenges. |
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to reference books and other course material.
None required.
Itoh, K. Safety Management by Human Factors Approach: From Theory to Practice. Tokyo: Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association (in Japanese).
Dekker, S. (2011). Patient Safety: A Human Factors Approach. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
Instruction manuals and course materials are provided during class.
Students' knowledge of topics in the lecture, and their ability to apply to the group work will be assessed. Short quiz/discussion 50%, group work 50%.
Full attendance is compulsory.
No prerequisites.