In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of health care services remains a serious, ongoing challenge. This once-in-a-century global health crisis exposed the vulnerability of healthcare delivery systems and the subsequent risks of patient harm. Given the scale of the...

Electronic Health Records (eHR) represent a significant digital transformation in the healthcare sector. A 2021 OECD survey of 27 countries revealed a growing adoption of eHRs. However, system fragmentation remains a concern: only 15 countries have a nationally unified system. Twenty-four...

Osteoarthritis impacts 7% of the global population, affecting more than 500 million people worldwide. As populations of OECD countries age, an increasing number of hip and knee replacement surgeries calls for further work on assessment of quality of care, particularly from patients’ point of...

Building on previous OECD Health Working Papers on the economics of patient safety, this paper firstly provides an update on the health burden, and financial and economic cost of unsafe care. It then summarises the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and return on investment of various programmes...

Gesundheitsversorgungssettings sind gefährliche Orte und komplexe Arbeitsumgebungen, in denen ständig etwas Unvorhergesehenes geschehen kann. Die Gefahren und Risiken führen nicht nur zu Verletzungen und Erkrankungen von Arbeitskräften, sondern beeinträchtigen auch die Sicherheit der...

Health care settings are inherently hazardous places, with very unpredictable and complex working environments. These hazards and risks not only result in a range of injuries and ill-health among workers but also jeopardise the safety of patients. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the importance...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to make health care more effective, efficient and equitable. AI applications are on the rise, from clinical decision-making and public health, to biomedical research and drug development, to health system administration and service redesign. The...

Building on published patient safety research literature, this paper aims to broaden the existing knowledge base on safety lapses occurring in primary and ambulatory care settings. The findings of this paper show that safety lapses in primary and ambulatory care are common. About half of the...

About one in ten patients are harmed during health care. This paper estimates the health, financial and economic costs of this harm. Results indicate that patient harm exerts a considerable global health burden. The financial cost on health systems is also considerable and if the flow-on...