Adhering to Patient Safety Standards: A Healthcare Imperative for the 21st Century
Ingoma Reagan Mokeke, So Yoon Kim and Choi Young-soon
The ethics of healthcare processes aim to protect patient safety by emphasizing the importance of
adhering to rules and avoiding harmful practices. They also suggest practical solutions to prevent such
failures. Non-compliance, whether due to human error or technical failure, can result in operational
failures and pose severe hazards to patients, healthcare workers, and hospital facilities.
This paper discusses intentional non-compliance with healthcare standards and guidelines, referred
to as deviation, and demonstrates how adhering to these rules can reduce the risk of harm. Noncompliance can have severe consequences, as it may reveal an organization's fail-safe mechanisms,
defenses, or safety nets, potentially resulting in catastrophic events and causing significant harm. These
errors typically occur when active errors combine with latent errors, such as flaws or vulnerabilities in
a system's defenses. This habit allows the latter to overcome the defenses, gain patient access, and cause
harm. There is no such thing as a completely safe environment, even the most advanced ones.
Additionally, all humans, regardless of their intelligence, have weaknesses. In healthcare processes,
every signal has the potential to cause harm, leading to tragic outcomes or even death. The factors
contributing to non-compliance fall under individual, collective, organizational, or sociocultural
categories. Reducing non-compliance in healthcare processes and ensuring patient safety requires all
stakeholders to commit to patient safety ethics.
