The safety of our patients during their stay in our hospitals takes top priority. This is why we rely on consistent hygiene and incident management, on checklists in surgery and on the wearing of patient identification bracelets.

We rely on various Group-wide measures to ensure the safety of our patients:

Consistent hygiene management, particularly in hospital departments where there is an increased risk of infection, such as in intensive care. We ensure infection monitoring using two different methods (KISS and SwissNoso).

Incident management: To reduce mistakes and promote an open and proactive learning culture, we use the reporting platform «The Patient Safety Company» (TPSC) to systematically record and analyse incidents in which patients have almost or actually come to harm.

Safe Surgery checklist: Based on the recommendations of the WHO and the Swiss Patient Safety Foundation, we use the Safe Surgery checklist.

Key figures: By compiling various internal and external key figures, we continuously assess our outcome quality. To do this, we regularly test ourselves against various benchmarks at a national and international level (e.g. ANQ, Swissnoso, QHI, medical registers).

Patient identification bracelet: The patient identification bracelet contributes to patient safety. The key element is active patient identification. The patient's identity is checked over and over again during all stages of treatment (e.g. laboratory, administering medication, operations).

Incident management

Safety comes first – every day.
Incidents and near-incidents don't just affect patients – they also have an impact on relatives, employees and the entire organisation. In order to continuously improve patient safety, Hirslanden systematically records and analyses such incidents.

Since 2008, all Hirslanden hospitals have used a CIRS system for reporting near-incidents. In 2021, it was replaced by the more comprehensive incident management system TPSC (The Patient Safety Company). This also allows actual incidents to be recorded and evaluated.

Reporting is simple and digital – using an online form for all occupational groups. This allows us to identify critical situations quickly, take targeted action and proactively plan measures to prevent further incidents of this kind.

Safety culture begins with openness.
We promote respectful interaction in which every voice counts – regardless of the hierarchy. The collected data helps us to understand risks, learn from them and implement targeted improvement measures.

Each reported incident is categorised in order to highlight focal points. In 2021, the majority of (near-)incidents related to falls, medication/biologics/fluids and documentation.

Safe surgery

To improve patient safety in surgery, we apply the Safe Surgery Saves Lives concept within the Hirslanden Group and ensure the necessary accompanying measures are implemented. The concept includes, among other things, the use of the Safe Surgery checklist from the Swiss Patient Safety Foundation.

The Hirslanden Group has been applying the «Safe Surgery Saves Lives» concept to improve patient safety in surgery and prevent serious incidents since 2009. The Safe Surgery checklist forms part of the concept. It was published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009, adapted for Switzerland by the Swiss Patient Safety Foundation in 2012 and spread across Switzerland as part of the «progress! Safe surgery» (2013-2015) programme. It was declared the industry standard with the Safe Surgery Charter.

With the Safe Surgery checklist, we ensure, among other things, that patient misidentification can be prevented, preoperative examinations (e.g. laboratory, ECG, X-ray) are available, the intervention takes place on the correct side of the body and the right instruments and right implant are present during the surgery. The observance of the Safe Surgery checklist in our hospitals is verified each year by unannounced visits by members of the Quality Management.

"Safe Surgery" training film by the Swiss Patient Safety Foundation