Established in 2017, the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety & Quality (IPSQ) has been active in integrating cluster-wide efforts in patient safety and quality within the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC). IPSQ’s goal is to eliminate preventable errors and harm, and improve patient outcomes by building and cultivating a strong patient safety culture.
IPSQ has developed a suite of programs aimed at upskilling and uplifting the patient safety, quality improvement and innovation capabilities of staff under its "Academic Medicine – Enhancing Performance, Improving Care" (AM-EPIC) Framework, and has appointed more than 50 staff as faculty members with the train-the-trainer programs. These faculty members from different institutions within the AMC come from a variety of training backgrounds. Trainers are empowered to pool their resources and expertise together to contribute towards patient safety and quality management in the areas of clinical services, research and education.
IPSQ adopts an integrated approach in managing patient safety and quality and encourages interdisciplinary collaborations and coordination among our stakeholders and partners. The Cross-Institution Infection Control (CIIC) Audit was set up to ensure high levels of standards in infection control. The Audits are conducted every quarter, based on standard CIIC audit tool and parameters which are used to assess the institutions’ performance in hand hygiene compliance rate, environmental hygiene compliance index as well as kitchen hygiene compliance.
As we continue to expand our network and build our resources, IPSQ collaborates and connects with external partners in advocating for education and professional development in Patient Safety and Quality to improve patient outcomes and deliver safe care, as well as sharing of best practices. IPSQ is a strategic partner of World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Unit for many programmes.
In fostering the community of practice, SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety & Quality (IPSQ) formed the Community of Learning Inter-professionally in Patient Safety (CLIPS) in 2023. Under CLIPS, we have IPSQ webinars, Institution PSQ forums, and DISCO café – an interactive workshop where like-minded colleagues from across SingHealth institutions, members of SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN) and domain experts come together to engage in open conversations and cross-pollinate ideas through a structured facilitation approach.
IPSQ developed the Global Knowledge Sharing Platform for Patient Safety (GKPS) www.gkps.net – an online platform where we seek, select and compile good practices, tools and resources to share with the wider Patient Safety & Quality community in the South East Asia region and globally.
All improvement project posters and abstracts submitted to conferences have been archived into the Patient Safety & Quality Archives (PSQA) with 5 volumes and a total of 1196 projects since it was started in 2020. You may click this link to find out more about PSQA.
The Journal of Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality (JPSHQ) is a joint publication of the Healthcare Quality Society of Singapore (HQSS) and IPSQ, and aims to fulfil the need for publications in healthcare safety and quality in the Asia Pacific and Singapore. You may visit this link to find out more about JPSHQ.
To further raise awareness on patient safety and related actions, IPSQ launched a series of graduate programmes in 2023 that focuses on patient safety and quality in healthcare. These graduate programmes are the first of their kind in ASEAN and one of only three offered in Asia. They are offered at certificate, diploma and masters levels and are designed to help healthcare professionals from all disciplines improve patient safety culture and processes. You may visit this link to find out more about our graduate programmes.
Regionally, we foster sharing of good and challenging practices across the Asia-Pacific region through the Asia-Pacific Patient Safety (APPS) Network. Join APPS at https://ezcollab.who.int/gpsn/apps today!
Do ipsq@singhealth.com.sg if you are interested to collaborate with us.
I look forward to your collective efforts and support!
Best wishes,Professor Tan Kok HianGroup Director & Senior Associate DeanSingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety & Quality
