By Dr Soonu Udani, Medical Director & Head of Critical Care Medicine, Narayana Health SRCC Children’s Hospital, Mumbai
A child is taken into a hospital because of breathing difficulty. A monitor displays the
oxygen level. A nurse checks medicine prescribed. A doctor reviews the child’s
condition. A second team member confirms the dose. A parent says the child looks unusually
restless.
None of these moments look dramatic. There is no surgery, no fancy machine and no headline-worthy discovery. Yet these small moments can be the difference between care that is simply given and care that is given safely.
On World Patient Safety Day we must view safety differently. It is not about stopping medical mistakes. It is about creating a health setting where every person, every process and every decision is made to protect the patient.
The important safety tool may be a simple question
‘Are we sure?’ Asking this question in a hospital can be very powerful. Is this the correct medicine? Is this the right dose? Has the patient’s allergy history been checked? Has the team been apprised of the latest change in the patient’s condition? Does something about the patient seem different today?
These checks may take a few seconds, but they build many layers of protection. In critical care this is even more important, especially with children.
Children are not small adults. Their medicine doses, fluid needs and clinical reactions can differ a lot with age, weight and sickness. A change that looks small can sometimes be very important clinically. That is why safe paediatric care relies not on medical skill but also on constant observation and disciplined processes.
When speaking up becomes a safety measure
One of the signs of a hospital focused on safety is that people feel able to speak up with doctors and nursing staff. A nurse who sees a change in a patient’s condition should be able to mention it right away. A junior doctor should be able to question something that does not seem right. A pharmacist should be able to flag a medicine concern. A parent should feel able to say, ‘My child is not looking their usual self, something seems wrong’.
Patient safety improves when hierarchy does not silence concern. The safest team is not the team that never questions itself. It is the team that’s ready to question itself at the right time.
The danger of assuming that someone else checked
Healthcare is very collaborative. A patient’s journey can involve doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory workers, radiologists, technicians and many other specialists. That collaboration is essential—it can also create a safety gap: assuming that someone else has already checked something.
A medicine should not be seen as safe just because it has been prescribed. It needs verification
at each stage. A handover to another doctor or nurse needs to be seamless. Every aspect of care and plan outlined in conversation and writing. Patient safety therefore needs responsibility rather than assumed responsibility. Every health care worker along with the patient and family should be responsible for a culture of “no harm”.
