Over the past 2 decades, patient safety has become an established priority in human healthcare. There is a large body of research in human medicine on harm caused by healthcare, its impact, and interventions to prevent it. There are also numerous guidelines, policies, and regulations to improve safety. The principles of safety science and practices to improve safety have not yet been adopted widely in veterinary medicine. This lecture includes a review of current human and veterinary healthcare data on error, with a deeper look into the impact of patient safety events on our team members.
