CHARACTERISTICS OF DOCUMENTS USED FOR ESTABLISHING INTERNAL POLICIES WHICH AGREE WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PATIENT SAFETY

Abstract

The management of adverse events is a key issue in health institutions; this effort begins with the development of standards, protocols and indicators, which must be built according to international standards. Objective: To assess the official document used by health centers in our country for establishing internal policies with regards to international quality criteria in the area of patient safety. Method: Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study, with a total of 90 documents which were assessed, from private and public health care centers. Information was collected online, through direct interview or e-mails sent to the quality committees of the institutions involved. The selection criteria were based on 6 international patient safety goals. Internationally defined ethical norms were respected. Results: A total of 30 health institutions were assessed. Items reaching above 90% compliance were "name of institution and title of document". On the other hand, the items "existence of the monitoring program" and "presence of indicator or indicators" had a 40% compliance. Out of the institutions assessed, documentation about "Patient Identification" was found in 90 % (27/30) of them. Conclusion: The present study shows the diversity of formats for the elaboration of documents for patient safety, which are also required for accreditation.