Patient safety
Norway has low levels of morbidity and mortality for mother and child during pregnancy, childbirth and maternity. Nevertheless, errors and poor quality of care and treatment occur from time to time, causing unnecessary complications for mother and child which may lead to injuries of varying severity. In childbirth, errors are often related to inadequate skill, communication and cooperation and to a lack of clear areas of responsibilities, but poor organisation has also been reported. Efforts to prevent errors that can lead to harm are becoming increasingly important. Patient safety is defined by the World Health Organisation as “the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum”. All stages of the care pathway involve a degree of risk, which calls for qualified leadership, clear guidelines and procedures, qualified health personnel, patient involvement and quality improvement work.
Adverse events and near-misses are terms used to describe events related to patient safety. Adverse events refer to unintentional harm caused to a patient due to inadequate healthcare provision.
Near-misses are events that have the capacity to cause harm but did not reach the patient, thus avoiding undesirable consequences.
Ongoing research
To be presented at a later date.