Patient safety alerts

Date / Alert Number	Alert / information type	Product / Device / Issue
November 2011	Safer Practice Notice	Risks Associated with Unfractionated Heparin to Maintain Patency of Intravascular Devices (PDF)
November 2011	Safer Practice Notice	Safe Administration of Injectable Medicines (PDF)
February 2010	Sharing Lessons Learned	Preventing Magnesium Sulphate Overdose in Obstetric Settings (PDF)

WA Health Patient Safety Alert System – notification options

The WA Health Patient Safety Alert System includes three different options for the dissemination of patient safety information to be used depending on the priority of the response required by WA hospitals/health services.  The three levels of notifications use the colours of a traffic light to indicate the level of urgency of the information provided.

1. Patient Safety Alerts (red) – requires immediate action
2. Safer Practice Notice (amber) – advises of patient safety issues
3. Patient Safety Information (green) – shares patient safety information

Policy

• WA Health Patient Safety Alert Policy (PDF)
• WA Health Patient Safety Alert Policy (Operational Directive)

Useful links

• Medication Safety Alerts
• NHS National Patient Safety Alerts (external site)
• Therapeutic Goods Administration (Alerts and Advisories) (external site)
• The Joint Commission (sentinel event alerts) (external site)

Request for development of an alert

• To request the development of an alert, practice notice or dissemination of patient safety information please complete the attached form and send to safetyandquality@health.wa.gov.au
• Request for development of an alert form (Word)

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