UNE 179003

What is it?

Patient safety is becoming very important both for patients and their families, who want to feel safe, and for managers and professionals, who want to guarantee safe, effective, and efficient healthcare services.

The UNE 179003 standard Risk Management for Patient Safety establishes the general principles and requirements that medical centres must meet to manage the risks arising from the execution of health activities within the framework of the management system.

The World Health Organisation defines patient safety as the absence or total reduction – or the reduction to a minimum acceptable level – of the risk of suffering unnecessary harm in the course of any intervention. The UNE 179003 standard develops the requirements necessary for this objective to be achieved. In this way, the health organisation manages to minimize the dangers and adverse events to which the patient may be subjected during health care, reduce the risks inherent in the health activity, and improve clinical results.

Adverse events are defined as any unexpected or undesirable incident that may occur during health care, causing harm to the patient. The adverse events are related to the errors produced during procedures, diagnosis, medication, and identification of the patient, or to hospital infections and appearance of decubitus ulcers, among other reasons.

The standard establishes criteria for risk assessment, taking into account the severity of the consequences and the probability of occurrence. Criteria are also established for the measurement of the detection capability, to determine the level of risk, as well as for risk acceptance.

The application of a risk management system can be applied globally in the medical centre, or in specific areas or services.

Legal framework

• UNE 179003: 2013 Sanitary Services. Risk Management for Patient Safety.