The Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX), which is a special sector of the European Commission Directorate-General for Enlargement, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Republic of Serbia, on behalf of the South-East Europe Health Network (SEEHN) and Regional Health Development Centre for Accreditation and Continuous Health Care Quality Improvement, organised the 2-day Workshop on Clinical Risk Management and Adverse Event Management in Belgrade on December 16-17, 2013.
The workshop was organized as a part of activities related to the EU Council Recommendation on patient safety: including the prevention and control of health care associated infections (2009/C 151/01), brought on 9 June 2009 in Luxembourg. The Council of the European Union recommends that SEEHN member states should set up, maintain or improve comprehensive reporting and learning systems so that the extent and causes of adverse events can be captured in order to develop efficient solutions and interventions. Patient safety should be embedded in the education and training of healthcare workers, as the providers of care. Impact of patient safety on clinical outcomes among SEEHN member states and a need to identify common challenges and actions for mutual recognition of patient safety among the SEEHN member states and harmonizing with EU requirements was discussed as well.
At the workshop the following key experts presented their work: Pia Knudsen, of National Agency for Patients’ Rights and Complaints, Denmark; Lucia Guidotti, of Ministry of Health, Italy; Adriana Galan, of National Institute of Public Health, Romania; Hanne Tønnesen, of Clinical Health Promotion Centre (WHOCC) Frederiksberg Hospital, Denmark; Yvonne Tuitert, of Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Netherlands, and Maria Ruseva, Freelance International Expert, Member of the SEE Health Network, Denmark.
Besides the above mentioned experts, the workshop was attended by representatives of Moldova, Israel, Albania, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Serbia who represented their experiences in the field of patient safety, legislation and developments in this area. Republic of Srpska was represented by director of RS Agency for Certification, Accreditation and Health Care Quality Improvement Sinisa Stevic MD and head of Certification Sector Vesna Vujic-Aleksic MD. Dr Stevic moderated the second day’s session which included themes on clinical risk management.
The Agency’s team presented our experiences in the field of clinical risk management and adverse event management, areas covered by the certification standards for health care institutions.
This workshop represents one of the first activities to achieve goals built in the South East Europe 2020 Strategy that sets for the first time health care as one of foundation for inclusive growth. One of the four objectives defined in this Strategy is introduction of measures for improvement of public health with a focus on poor and marginalized groups, by strengthening capacity for delivering high quality services and health promotion.
Participation in this event and sharing of experiences ad ideas with participants from other countries for our colleagues carries a great value, especially for the activities undertaken by the Agency to further improve our health care system.