Patient Safety and the Use of Technologies

Chris Ranger has been Head of Safer Practice at the National Patient Safety Agency since 2002. She has led work on a range of issues which affect the safety of patients. Her particular interest is in safer patient identification and the matching of patients with care through the use of both manual checking and technologies. Before that she worked for the Health Service Ombudsman and then the Commission for Health Improvement investigating failures in healthcare on an individual basis and as an indication of systems failure in the NHS. Prior to that she was an NHS Customer Care Manager in south London. She has a BA from York in Social Sciences and an MA from London in Sociology with Special Reference to Qualitative Research. She has published regularly on health and social care, including on safer patient identification, and is a member of the Institute of Healthcare Managers.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is a Special Health Authority created to co-ordinate the efforts of all those involved in healthcare, and more importantly to learn from, patient safety incidents occurring in the NHS.

 

From 1 April 2005, the NPSA's work also encompasses: safety aspects of hospital design, cleanliness and food (transferred from NHS Estates); ensuring research is carried out safely, through its responsibility for the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees (COREC); and is supporting local organisations in addressing their concerns about the performance of individual doctors and dentists, through its responsibility for the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS), formerly known as the National Clinical Assessment Authority. It also manages the contracts with the three confidential enquiries. This responsibility has been transferred from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

 

Westin Copley, Boston, MA

March 28-29, 2006

 

The fifth event in this series - in previous years over 400 people and 45 exhibitors have attended.