IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Patient Safety Movement Foundation announced today a commitment from Spain’s anesthesia national incident reporting system, Sistema Español de Notificacion en Seguridad on Anestesia y Reanimacion (SENSAR), to help eradicate medical errors. The team will provide an update on their formal commitment at the fourth-annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, January 22-23, 2016 at Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa, Dana Point, California.

According to the World Health Organization, the European Union has approximately 750K medical errors per year. If these medical errors were eliminated, this would lead to 3.2 million fewer days of hospitalization, 260K fewer incidents of permanent disability and 100,000 fewer deaths. Infection associated with health care affects 1 in 20 hospital patients every year. In Spain, of the 4,600,000 hospital stays in 2011, close to 7.4K resulted in death.

“Unfortunately, the traditional approach to medical errors is focused on blame and punishment. This makes it difficult for health organizations to learn from mistakes,” stated Dr. Daniel Arnal, President of SENSAR. “Our commitment is to spread a patient safety culture in anesthesia, critical care and pain management throughout all hospitals in Spain. We are implementing a web-based independent and non-punitive incident reporting system. We also provide teaching and training through simulation teamwork. We currently have 86 hospitals that are enrolled voluntarily. We hope to increase the number of hospitals to 120 by the year 2020. The lives saved from our commitment will be fourfold the high traffic related deaths in Spain.”

Founded in 2009, SENSAR is a non-profit organization of anesthesiologists based in Spain that focuses on Patient Safety reporting systems and in providing training on the best practices in safety. Their focus is an incident reporting system, education, safety practices (protocols and checklists) and human factors. The participating hospitals have 200-1500 beds and are mostly public institutions and together count 384 analyzers, mostly anesthesiologists, that have already analyzed more than 5,000 critical patient safety incidents and suggested more than 9,900 related corrective measures.

"We are excited to be working with SENSAR in significantly improving patient safety in Spain,” stated Joe Kiani, Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. “SENSAR understands that one life lost is one too many. Their commitment has already saved 3,386 and is on track to have their system in every hospital in Spain by 2020. Patient safety is a global issue and we commend countries like Spain for leading the way.“

About The Patient Safety Movement Foundation

More than 3,000,000 people worldwide, and 200,000 people in the US, die every year in hospitals in ways that could have been prevented. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare, to reduce that number of preventable deaths to 0 by 2020 (0X2020) in the US and dramatically worldwide. Improving patient safety will require a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation works with all stakeholders to address the problems and solutions of patient safety. The Foundation also convenes annual Patient Safety, Science and Technology summits that are by invitation only. The next summit will be held January 22-23, 2016 in Dana Point, CA and will bring together the world’s best minds for thought-provoking discussions and new ideas to challenge the status quo. By presenting specific, high-impact actionable solutions to meet patient safety challenges, encouraging medical technology companies to share the data for whom their products are purchased, and asking hospitals to make commitments to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, the Foundation is working toward zero preventable deaths by 2020. Visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.

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