While healthcare continues to improve, advances in technologies and treatments have also made it more complex. It’s estimated that nearly 100,000 patients die every year due to medical errors [1]. And consider this: medical errors due to misdiagnosis account for up to 17% of all adverse medical events [2].
To raise awareness and work toward error-free healthcare, March 11-18 has been declared National Patient Safety Awareness Week [3]. During this week, we tip our hats to our customers who work tirelessly every day– not just this week – to ensure the safety of the patients they treat.
For our customers, patient safety is the day-to-day care that patients receive in a healthcare setting, but it is much more. It also comes in the form of a timely and accurate diagnosis and a treatment plan that best fits the patient. One of our customers, Moffitt Cancer Center, is a perfect example. Comprehensive diagnostics and programs, such as the Personalize Medicine Clinical Service (PMCS) and Clinical Genomics Action Committee (CGAC), enable them to efficiently and accurately turn genomic testing results into a diagnosis and treatment plan that offers patients the best opportunity for a positive outcome [4].
And what does patient safety mean to us at PierianDx? It means that we must continue our focus on building best-in-class genomic solutions and services that support clinical labs with "actionable intelligence" – precision medicine insights that help physicians more accurately diagnose and treat patients. We can’t hang up our hats until patients everywhere receive the most precise and accurate diagnosis and the best treatment possible for their conditions.
For more information about National Patient Safety week, visit United for Patient Safety, an initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
References
- http://www.centerforpatientsafety.org/facts-stats/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/20-percent-of-patients-with-serious-conditions-are-first-misdiagnosed-study-says/2017/04/03/e386982a-189f-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?utm_term=.740b65241732
- http://www.unitedforpatientsafety.org/patient_safety_awareness_week
- https://moffitt.org/take-charge/take-charge-story-archive/moffitt-celebrates-patient-safety-awareness-week-with-events/
