A project carried out in collaboration with the WHO  and the PAHO  for conducting a study on the prevalence of adverse effects related to hospital care in five Latin American countries.

Objectives

• Enhance the knowledge regarding patient safety by means of approaching the magnitude, far-reaching importance and impact of Adverse Effects (AEs) and the analysis of the characteristics of the patients and of the care which are related to the onset of preventable AEs.
• Identify top-priority patient safety-related areas and problems so as to facilitate and boost prevention processes in order to minimize and mitigate adverse effects.
• Increase the critical mass of professionals actively involved in patient safety.
• Incorporate objectives and activities aimed at improving patient safety into the agenda of all countries at the different organization and care-providing levels.

Documents

• Study on Patient Safety in Latin American Hospitals (IBEAS) . Madrid: Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality; 2010. [Spanish] 
• IBEAS: a pioneer study on patient safety in Latin America. Towards safer hospital care . Geneva: World Health Organization; 2011.

Published articles

• Aranaz-Andrés JM, Aibar-Remón C, Limón-Ramírez R, Amarilla A, Restrepo FR, Urroz O et al. BMJ Qual Saf. Prevalence of adverse events in the hospitals of five Latin American countries: results of the 'Iberoamerican study of adverse events' (IBEAS) . 2011;20(12):1043-1051.
• Aranaz-Andrés JM, Aibar-Remón C, Limón-Ramírez R, Amarilla A, Restrepo FR, Urroz O et al. [IBEAS design: adverse events prevalence in Latin American hospitals] . Rev Calid Asist. 2011;26(3):194-200.