Saudi Arabia has launched the Saudi National Patient Safety Taxonomy, to better analyse, interpret and reduce the number of patient safety events nationwide
Datix, the global leader in patient safety software solutions, called it ‘a watershed moment for patient safety.’
The Saudi National Patient Safety Taxonomy is a comprehensive classification system that comprises a set of concepts linked by semantic relationships. It provides a structure for organising information to be used for many purposes including national statistics, descriptive studies and evaluative research.
“The taxonomy will facilitate the development of reliable, organisation-based, regional and national event reporting system,” said Dr Abdulelah Alhawsawi, director of the Saudi Patient Safety Centre. “It will also help identify priorities for patient safety and quality improvement initiatives, while also facilitating research projects and comparison of safety research findings.”
The classification system is designed to facilitate the measurement, monitoring, analysis, comparison and interpretation of information to improve patient care and patient safety, thus leading to a reduction in preventable patient harm.
Health Matrix, Datix’s regional partner, and Datix worked side by side with a majority of Healthcare sectors in Saudi Arabia to integrate the taxonomy into the Datix suite of patient safety software solutions.
Patient safety taxonomy has been on the national health agenda in the kingdom since late 2015, when King Faisal Specialist Hospital and research centre organised a closed panel discussion session in Jeddah entitled “Towards a National Patient Safety Taxonomy.” In collaboration with Health Matrix, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health developed a plan to improve incident reporting throughout the Kingdom. Central to that plan was the development and adoption of a patient safety taxonomy system that would be implemented at the national level.
To help accelerate the adoption of the taxonomy, Health Matrix and Datix will assist current Datix’s customers in Saudi Arabia in transitioning to the new taxonomy. With the Datix integration, the taxonomy aims to enable users throughout Saudi Arabia to collect, store and retrieve data in a reliable and organised fashion.
