AAP policy statement directed at patient safety

A new American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement calls for creation of a "culture of safety" in all types of pediatric practices to reduce medical errors.

According to the statement, clinicians in solo practices as well as health care executives and administrators must take responsibility for creating safe systems of care that include not only preventing errors and adverse events but also identifying and reporting them when they do occur.

Noting that most work on patient safety has been done in hospitals, AAP recommends expanding the focus to ambulatory care.

American Academy of Pediatrics. Steering Committee on Quality Improvement and Management and Committee on Hospital Care. Policy statement-principles of pediatric patient safety: reducing harm due to medical care. Pediatrics. 2011. Epub ahead of print.