World Patient Safety Day is a yearly campaign that calls for global solidarity and concerted action by all countries and international partners to improve patient safety. The theme for 2026 is ‘Safe care for life!’, focusing on safe care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), calling for action to ensure that no one is harmed whilst receiving care for NCDs. 

BMJ Open publishes research across a wide range of topics and study designs, and in this blog post we highlight some of the papers published over the past year that demonstrate the current systems and perceptions that relate to patient safety in healthcare settings. 

First, a systematic review conducted by de Bell et al. aimed to identify the implementation of safety management systems (SMS) in national healthcare systems offering universal coverage. The authors included research from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, collating records that relate to effectiveness, implementation, and experiences of the patient safety approach. The review found that whilst the main components of an SMS were identified in all five countries, only the Netherlands had implemented a patient safety programme that was explicitly based on a SMS approach. The authors concluded that some aspects of patient safety in hospitals improved as a result of the SMS, but further research is needed on implementation and impact. 

Collado-González et al. carried out a multi-centre cross-sectional study in Spain, aiming to evaluate the association between organisational patient safety practices, safety culture, and adverse event (AE) reporting in pediatric emergency departments. The authors found that organisational patient safety practices – such as the presence of patient safety specialists, leadership walkarounds, additional reporting systems, and patient safety training – were associated with favourable safety culture dimensions, but AE reporting was primarily associated with reporting infrastructure and organisational characteristics.  

Ertuğrul et al. undertook a rapid realist review in order to develop a set of theories to address how, why, for whom, and in what context quality and patient safety surveillance systems work, finding that quality and patient safety surveillance systems are most effective when supported by strong leadership, adequate resources, clear governance structures, and a positive, learning-oriented safety culture. 

Alsaleh et al. conducted a cross-sectional study in Kuwait, aiming to describe healthcare professionals (HCPs) assessment of safety culture in critical care units. They found that HCPs from adult and pediatric critical care units generally had positive perceptions of patient safety culture dimensions, but also suggested that to enhance patient safety, hospitals should focus on addressing workforce shortages, high workloads, and offer regular training in communication, teamwork and stress management. 

We are also looking forward to the results of several Protocol articles, including a systematic integrative review by Greenfield et al. that aims to explore how staff and team characteristics relate to safety incidents in adult inpatient mental health settings. Khorasgani et al. are currently undertaking a mixed-methods study aiming to develop and validate the Patient Safety Culture in Home Health Care Centers Instrument (PSCHCI), a tool to help assess patient safety culture in home-based settings. 

Together, these studies highlight some of the current systems that are in place to better support patient safety across a variety of health conditions. We are pleased to see a diverse range of study designs capturing these outcomes, and look forward to the future directions of patient safety research. If you’d like to share your research with us, you can find submission details here. 

This text was written without any assistance from AI.