TIRUPATI: The Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) on Friday observed ‘World Patient Safety Day’ by introducing the concept of ‘Never Events’ in public domain and also proposing the usage of ‘medical drones’.
SVIMS Director-cum-Vice-Chancellor T.S. Ravikumar launched the ‘Serious seven — The seven never events’ on the SVIMS website under quality/patient safety. “The term ‘never events’ refers to the measurable and preventable conditions that should not occur in a healthcare setting. Brought into focus in 2001 across Western countries, this needs emphasis in India,” Dr. Ravikumar said, addressing a gathering of faculty, students and medical staff.
He said that for the past one year, they have been implementing safety measures since the commissioning of ‘SVIMS Quality Council’, such as ‘Code blue’, department mortality and morbidity conferences, root cause analysis, never events promulgation, etc,. “Nearly 35 lives have been saved in the past 12 months. Adoption of these measures, and sharing the best practices across hospitals in the country will result in saving more lives,” he said.
SVIMS officials said that they would upload all the seven ‘never events’ in the web portal, at least on a monthly basis. With an increase in number of applications of drones, the officials have proposed a first-of-its-kind for health system in India — to deploy drone technology for trauma and disaster management from the site of accident to the hub hospital.
Dr. Ravikumar said the university will purchase a drone and would commission it after approvals from authorities concerned. “The concept of ambulance drone is already being mooted for remote resuscitation such as defibrillator use,” he said.
The SVIMS will enter into an MoU with Tirupati Airport Authority next week to bring in collaborative best practices towards seamless trauma and emergency response systems.
