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Metas de Enfermería

Metas de Enfermería

OCTUBRE 2009 N° 8 Volumen 12

Healthcare policy for clinical excellence and safety of care. The SENECA project

Section: Cover story

How to quote

Rodríguez Escobar J, Agra Valera Y, Colomer Revuelta C, Ignacio García E. Política sanitaria para la excelencia clínica y cuidados seguros. El proyecto SENECA. Metas de Enferm oct 2009; 12(8): 26-31

Authors

1José Rodríguez Escobar, 2Yolanda Agra Valera, 3Concepción Colomer Revuelta, 4Emilio Ignacio García

Position

1Codirector del proyecto SÉNECA. Jefe de Servicio de la Oficina de Planificación Sanitaria y Calidad.2Consejera Técnica de la Agencia de Calidad del SNS (Sistema Nacional de Salud), Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad. Madrid.3Doctora en Medicina y Pediatría. Fue Directora del Observatorio de Salud de las Mujeres de España. Responsable de la Oficina de Planificación Sanitaria y Calidad de la Agencia de Calidad del Sistema Nacional de Salud.4Profesor del Departamento de Enfermería y Fisioterapia. Universidad de Cádiz.

Contact address

Jefe de Servicio de la Oficina de Planificación Sanitaria y Calidad. Agencia de Calidad. Ministerio de Sanidad y Política Social. Pº de Pr

Contact email: jrodrigueze@msps.es

Abstract

Since 2006, the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, as coordinator of the National Health System (NHS), has implemented a Quality Plan with the aim of achieving clinical practice based on the best scientific knowledge available.  
This plan consists of 12 strategies and 39 objectives.  One the most important strategies in Promoting Clinical Excellence, which includes the Plan’s 8th objective: to improve the safety of patients who receive care in healthcare centres of the NHS.  Nursing involvement is essential for its achievement.  
In Spain, according to the ENEAS study, the incidence of side effects related with hospital care is 9.3%, of which 43% could be avoidable.  These numbers mirror those of other international studies.  
The article reviews the actions carried out in this strategy between 2005 and 2007 and, amongst them, the project linked with nursing care, known as the SENECA project.
This project aims to create a general quality model of safe hospital nursing care, validate it and measure it in the hospitals of the National Health System (NHS).  The model has been developed with the participation of several Nursing and patient societies and experts from different fields, mainly nurses.  A total number of 170 people have taken part in this project.   
At present, the first two phases have been carried out.  We have an instrument to measure 100 quality criteria associated with the safety of hospital care.  This measurement can be carried out via self-evaluation or external auditing and the model has indicators that specify the data source and the method used to obtain this data.  The instrument has been validated in five hospitals of the NHS.
When the third phase is finalized, we will also have quantitative information on the level of safety of care in the Spanish NHS.  
We hope the model becomes a useful tool for measuring and improving hospital nursing care.  

Keywords:

healthcare quality; patient safety; nursing care; hospital care; side efftcshealthcare policy

Versión en Español

Título:

Política sanitaria para la excelencia clínica y cuidados seguros. El proyecto SÉNECA