On 31 May, HOPE and PAQS organised the 12^th Quality and Safety Network webinar which described how the third French national adverse events survey shows a statistically significant drop in preventable adverse events (AE) and of their severity between 2009 and 2019.

Vigilance must be maintained on risks related to surgical procedures, critical care and on implantable medical devices for events that occurred during hospitalisation. The increased prevalence of organisational contributing factors may be related to a measurement bias related to better trained investigators and to deteriorating working conditions during the last decade. The increase in the proportion of readmissions among AEs causing hospitalisation questions the shift to ambulatory care which has led to the reduction in hospital length of stay. Finally, the under-declaration of AE requires strengthening the training and culture of healthcare professionals in patient safety. Patient safety remains a health policy priority in France.

The objectives of the webinar were to:
 – Present the results of the third national adverse events survey
 – Discuss the main challenges and conclusions
 – Give an insight about how these results will be used further in France’s national policy

Speaker:
Philippe Michel, Full Professor in Public Health, Survey Scientific Head

Link to the presentation

Watch the video recording