World Patient Safety Day

On World Patient Safety Day, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) invites everyone – patients, families, health professionals – to learn about how to protect patients and serve as an advocate for those receiving medical care. The Annual World Patient Safety Day is celebrated globally to reiterate the importance of healthcare safety and quality.

It is a good day to recall the enormous energy PSMF’s Patient Safety Curriculum Workgroup devoted to developing a core curriculum that can be applied across all health professions. I and Dr. Peggy Shoemaker had the honor of serving as workgroup co-chairs and are proud of the curriculum, which emphasizes the following elements:

• Ownership of patient safety and quality embedded within the professional identity formation for all health caregivers
• Core curriculum common to all health professions that includes
  • Leadership training
  • Interprofessional team-based models
  • Definition of competencies to be achieved, outcomes to be assessed and milestones to be identified for each stage of one’s professional career (undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education and unsupervised practice, across all professions)
  • Focusing beyond care of the individual patient to address systems of care

I urge healthcare professionals everywhere to observe World Patient Safety Day by participating in PSMF’s “Unite for Safe Care” (#uniteforsafecare) event and downloading the free Patient Safety Curriculum.

- Steven J. Scheinman, MD
President and Dean, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, Geisinger

About Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM) is a member of the Geisinger family. GCSOM offers a community-based model of medical education with campuses in Danville, Lewistown, Scranton, Sayre and Wilkes-Barre. Geisinger Commonwealth offers Doctor of Medicine (MD) and a portfolio of graduate degrees. The school’s innovative curriculum, focused on caring for people in the context of their lives and their community, attracts the next generation of physicians and scientists from within its region, as well as from across the state and the nation. Geisinger Commonwealth is committed to non-discrimination in all employment and educational opportunities. Visit www.geisinger.edu/gcsom.

About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the nonprofit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 126 care sites — including 10 hospital campuses — and Geisinger Health Plan, with more than half a million members in commercial and government plans. Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,700 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $15 billion to the state’s economy. On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. Learn more at geisinger.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.