The World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) is an official WHO campaign for all stakeholders in the health care system to work together to improve patient safety. It is observed annually on 17 September with the objective of enhancing global understanding of patient safety, increase public engagement in health care safety, and promote global action to prevent and reduce avoidable harm in health care. 

2024 Theme

The 2024 theme is "Improving diagnosis for patient safety. A diagnosis identifies a patient’s health problem. To reach a diagnosis, patients and their health care teams must work together to navigate the complex and sometimes lengthy diagnostic process. It involves discussion with the patient, examination, testing and review of results before reaching the final diagnosis and treatment. 

Diagnostic errors can be broadly divided into three categories:

1. Delayed diagnosis – Harm occurs when a health condition is not identified at an earlier stage. This may result from the failure to use the correct tests, reliance on outdated assessment methods, or failure to act on the results of monitoring or testing.
2. Incorrect diagnosis – The wrong diagnosis is made, and the true cause is discovered later. This can lead to patients receiving incorrect treatments, which may be harmful, while they also miss out on the appropriate treatment for their condition.
3. Missed diagnosis – A patient’s illness or health condition goes unrecognized, resulting in a worsening condition and avoidable harm due to the lack of appropriate treatment.

Through the slogan “Get it right, make it safe,” the World Patient Safety Day 2024 aims to urge collective efforts to reduce diagnostic errors by adopting systems thinking, considering human factors, and actively involving patients, families, health workers, and healthcare leaders.

Campaign key messages

Correct and timely diagnosis is the first step to preventative interventions and effective treatment. Diagnostic errors account for 16% of preventable patient harm and are common in all healthcare settings. Diagnostic errors can include missed, incorrect, delayed or miscommunicated diagnoses. They can worsen patient outcomes and at times lead to prolonged or severe illness disability, or even death, and increased health care costs.

Understanding the diagnostic process is key to reducing errors. The diagnostic process involves many iterative steps, including the patient’s initial presentation; history taking and examination; diagnostic testing, discussion, and communication of results; collaboration and coordination; final diagnosis and treatment plan; follow-up and re-evaluation. Errors can occur at any stage. 

A range of solutions are available to address diagnostic errors. Policy-makers and healthcare leaders should foster positive workplace environments and provide quality diagnostic tools; health workers should be encouraged to continuously develop their skills and address unconscious bias in judgement; and patients should be supported to be actively engaged throughout their diagnostic journey.

Diagnosis is a team effort. Correct and timely diagnosis requires collaboration among patients, families, caregivers, health workers, healthcare leaders and policy-makers. All stakeholders must be engaged in shaping the diagnostic process and empowered to voice any concerns.

What is the role of patients and patient organisations in improving diagnostic safety?

Patients and family representatives can contribute to diagnostic safety while interacting and building trust with their care providers through:

• Providing complete, clear and accurate information, following a checklist of questions to be asked and actively following up on results;
• Confirming understanding of instructions and expected progress of health condition;
• Following through on diagnostic plans, including recommended tests and scans to make sure diagnosis is based on the most complete and current data;
• Requesting access and reviewing their medical records, lab results, and test interpretations for any discrepancies or missing information, also reporting any changes in symptoms;
•  Advocating for themselves – expressing their concerns and requesting additional tests or even a second opinion if they feel their diagnosis is unclear or unsatisfactory. Patients can provide critical insights into their lived experiences, allowing healthcare providers to tailor care to individual needs and preferences, reducing the risk of errors and improving overall patient safety outcomes.

Lastly, by advocating for patients' rights and collaborating with healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers, patient organizations can educate, raise awareness, and co-create policies for the monitoring and evaluation of healthcare protocols. This collaboration helps implement accountability measures that reduce the occurrence of misdiagnoses, ensuring diagnostic safety remains a priority for all stakeholders.

Join the campaign

There are many ways you can join us in raising awareness for diagnostic safety including social media campaigns, webinars and panel discussions on the theme, health talks at community centres, public awareness campaigns and so much.

The WHO has created a hub with campaign materials and resources for stakeholders to give you some inspiration.

World Patient Safety Day Resources

About the campaign

World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) is an official WHO campaign for all stakeholders in the healthcare system to work together to improve patient safety. It's a recognition of the scale of avoidable harm linked with medical errors. Established by the World Health Assembly in 2019 through resolution WHA72.6 on “Global action on patient safety” – It is observed annually on 17 September to enhance global understanding of patient safety, increase public engagement in health care safety, and promote global action to prevent and reduce avoidable harm in health care. Each year, a new theme is selected to shed light on a priority patient safety area where action is needed to reduce avoidable harm in health care and achieve universal health coverage.

It’s also a global commitment made by all WHO member states to recognize patient safety as a key health priority and agree to take action to reduce patient harm in healthcare settings.

It is all about getting global healthcare actors involved in:

• Scaling up concerted global action on patient safety
• Putting measures in place to reduce avoidable patient harm
• Sharing awareness of patient safety in care settings
• Raising awareness amongst the public and media on key issues relating to patient safety
• Experimenting with new ideas to improve patient safety
• Helping patients contribute to their own safety