Patient Safety Isn’t Seasonal: Five Tips Every Health System Should Follow
By Nacim Iranmanesh
It is National Patient Safety Awareness Week, a time dedicated to focusing on what really matters: Providing safe, effective healthcare for patients. For health leaders, though, it’s a topic that should be top of mind year-round. Healthcare is constantly evolving, and so must our strategies for ensuring safe and quality care for patients.
Room for improvement
A recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report showed more than 14,500 complaints filed against hospitals in 2024 alone, marking a 79% increase from five years prior. As healthcare workforce shortages worsen, patient cases become more complex, and technology advances, health leaders need to be extra vigilant to ensure safety.
After more than a decade working in patient safety across large health systems and virtual care platforms, I’ve seen firsthand what strengthens safety—and what quietly undermines it.
With that in mind, here are five tips every health leader should keep in mind to continue improving patient safety:
- Ask questions about how your system operates, and don’t be afraid of the answers you may get. Healthcare leaders must continually examine whether current processes truly improve care. Challenge the status quo and don’t accept, “That’s the way it’s always been done,” as an answer.
- Lean-in to new tech. When used correctly, technology reduces administrative burdens and allows clinicians to focus on patients. The rapid expansion of virtual medical scribes is the perfect example. Clinicians can remain fully present instead of dividing their attention between documentation and care.
- Don’t operate in silos. The big picture matters, but often leaders are just focusing on their department or the tasks they oversee. To ensure patient safety, issues must be considered from a systems perspective. If a patient is injured in the OR, don’t rush to the most tangible reason. Instead look at what factors led to the incident. What was missed? What can be changed? How do we ensure it doesn’t happen again? These are the types of actionable items that can improve patient safety.
- Implement an incident report system. If an incident is not reported, no one knows it happened. If an interaction with a patient feels off, submit a report. Let leadership know. If you don’t feel comfortable attaching your name to it, submit it anonymously. Incident reports enable leaders to better understand what is happening across the organization. They can also provide insight into areas that need improvement.
- Invest in patient advocacy. Patients who are frustrated or disappointed with their care may be unlikely to share those feelings with the provider who oversaw it. Patient advocacy departments give patients a dedicated outlet to report shortcomings. These insights can provide actionable items that should be addressed in your health system. If a protocol didn’t work for one patient, there’s a chance it isn’t working for others. Establishing two-way communication can go a long way in ensuring safety.
Patient safety is not a one-week initiative. It requires humility, transparency, and the willingness to change course when something isn’t working. Mistakes will happen—healthcare is human. What defines strong systems is how quickly and honestly they learn from mistakes.
Nacim Iranmanesh, MPH, CPPS, DHSc, is the Chief of Staff at Receptive. She has more than a decade of experience advancing clinical operations, patient safety, and data-driven performance across health systems and digital health organizations. In her current role, Iranmanesh focuses on scaling clinical operations across Receptive brands—Pettable, ADHD Advisor, and Top Nutrition Coaching—and using outcomes analytics to improve visibility, performance, and patient impact.