COVID-19, Healthcare Quality, Patient Safety and Quality of Life

Dear Colleagues,

Patient safety and a good quality of care are considered to be a right for all patients and the responsibility of all staff within hospitals (Zineldin, 2006). They are all related to quality of life.

Human error is almost unavoidable, even for the most experienced, trained and qualified physicians and other healthcare providers. Medical errors (MEs) are one of the leading causes of death and injury in many countries.

More people die and are injured as a result of MEs than as a result of AIDS, breast cancer or car accidents. In total, 23 percent of Europeans argue that they have been directly affected by a ME, personally or in the family. A total of 18 percent indicate that they or their family members have experienced a serious ME in a hospital, while 11 percent have reported been prescribed the wrong medication (European Commission, 2006). The Johns Hopkins patient safety experts’ index (2015) shows that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical errors in the U.S. (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us).  In Sweden, over 3000 people die each year as a result of MEs and adverse events. In Canada, 185,000 MEs were associated with adverse events, 70,000 of which were potentially preventable, in 2004.

Many studies have found that poor medical care or even the rude treatment of patients by providers dissatisfies patients, discourages them from seeking care and returning for services, and prompts them to switch physicians. Healthcare staff members derive greater personal and professional satisfaction from their jobs when they can offer good-quality care and feel that their work is valuable.

In addition, the healthcare system (HCS) is facing the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis. To respond to the crisis, the HCS had to instantly reorganize, with little time to reflect on the roles to assign to patient safety (PS) and quality improvement (QI).

Systematic methods to ensure patient safety, quality of care, patient satisfaction and overall  quality of life are still evolving, in both developed and developing countries. The medical and healthcare sectors have to cope with environmental pressures, such as demographic changes and the ageing of populations, as well as the novel COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of new treatments and technologies, and an increased insistence on better medical and healthcare in order to remain competitive.

This Special Issue reflects an effort to capture current developments in the patient safety, healthcare quality and overall quality of life fields, and to provide a forum for cutting-edge contributions to the literature.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Tools for preventing inaccurate diagnoses;
• Measuring misdiagnosis;
• Healthcare-associated infections and patient safety;
• Healthcare disparities;
• COVID-19: patient safety and quality improvement;
• Best practices in clinical and operational processes;
• Post-operative care, patient safety and satisfaction after critical surgeries;
• Patient satisfaction: recent indicator for the quality of primary care;
• The relationship of patient safety and satisfaction with care and clinical outcomes;
• Illness behaviour and patent safety;
• Methods for reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety and quality of life;
• The measurement of patient safety and quality of life;
• Key factors affecting the quality of life in patients with chronic illnesses;
• The Care Act, standards, safety and patient satisfaction in hospitals;
• Self-efficacy and patient safety;
• Physician and patient satisfaction;
• The promotion of staff and patient wellbeing and psychological safety.

Prof. Dr. Mosad Zineldin
Guest Editor

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