Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent health threats we face globally.  Imagine this: You or someone you love develops an infection. It’s something common – maybe an infected tooth, a wound, or pneumonia.  Antibiotics are taken exactly as prescribed, but they have no effect! The infection persists and even worsens.  What is going on?  It’s a case of antimicrobial resistance. It means that the bacteria that caused the infection is resistant to the antibiotic. Certain bacteria have adapted to survive the effects of antibiotics. In some cases, no...

Simply put, harm is the negative effect which patients experience as a result of health care or treatment in any type of setting (i.e. hospital, emergency room, home, long-term care, other) and from different care providers.  Patients see harm differently than do healthcare professionals.   Patients or their family/caregiver may see, hear, feel or know that something may be wrong or getting worse with the care and treatment received before care providers do.    TYPES OF HARM EXPERIENCED Most people think about physical harm when we talk about harm in...

Have you, or a loved one, experienced a patient safety incident?  A patient safety incident is an event or circumstance which could have resulted, or did result, in unnecessary harm to a patient. There are three types of patient safety incidents:   Harmful incident: A patient safety incident that resulted in harm to the patient. Near miss: A patient safety incident that did not reach the patient and therefore no harm resulted. No-harm incident: A patient safety incident that reached the patient but no discernible harm resulted.  While we are not able to provide...