Electronic Health Records (eHR) represent a significant digital transformation in the healthcare sector. A 2021 OECD survey of 27 countries revealed a growing adoption of eHRs. However, system fragmentation remains a concern: only 15 countries have a nationally unified system. Twenty-four...

Patients' and citizens' perspectives and their active engagement are critical to make health systems safer and people-centred, and are key for co-designing health services and co-producing good health with healthcare professionals, and building trust in health systems. Patients, families,...

Durch ungeeignete Arzneimitteltherapien und inadäquate Systeminfrastrukturen, die unzureichende Adhärenz, medikationsbedingte Schäden und Medikationsfehler nach sich ziehen, kommen nur allzu oft Patient*innen zu Schaden. Im OECD-Raum ist möglicherweise ein Zehntel der Krankenhauseinweisungen...

Osteoarthritis impacts 7% of the global population, affecting more than 500 million people worldwide. As populations of OECD countries age, an increasing number of hip and knee replacement surgeries calls for further work on assessment of quality of care, particularly from patients’ point of...

Poor medication practices and inadequate system infrastructure—resulting in poor adherence, medication-related harms, and medication errors—too often results in patient harm. As many as 1 in 10 hospitalizations in OECD countries may be caused by a medication-related event and as many one in...

In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of health care services remains a serious, ongoing challenge. This once-in-a-century global health crisis exposed the vulnerability of healthcare delivery systems and the subsequent risks of patient harm. Given the scale of the...

Safety is a core dimension of health care quality. Measurement of patient safety culture in OECD countries has been increasingly conducted as part of efforts to monitor patient safety and to contribute to health system performance assessment. Building on four years of work, a second OECD data...

Patient-reported measures are a critical tool for improving policy and practice in mental health care. However, to date, the use of patient-reported measures in mental health care is limited to a small number of countries and settings—and there is a pressing need, both within and across...

Telemedicine is being used across OECD countries to deliver health care in a wide range of specialties, for numerous conditions and through varied means. A growing body of evidence suggests that care delivered via telemedicine can be both safe and effective, in some cases with better outcomes...

As people grow old and their health deteriorates, they are likely to require help with everyday activities that were once second nature; they need what is commonly termed long-term care (LTC). With demand for LTC in old age expected to grow, OECD countries face significant challenges in balancing...