The economics of patient and health worker safety

Welcome and thank you for joining me today. My name is Prof. Reinhard Strametz, and I'm a professor of patient safety at RheinMain University in Wiesbaden, Germany. In this lecture, we will explore a topic that is both urgent and often underestimated: the economics of patients and health worker safety.

Now, when we talk about safety in healthcare, we often think of clinical effectiveness of doing the right thing for the patient or avoiding mistakes. But today we are going to add a powerful dimension to this conversation, the financial logic. Yes, patient safety isn't just a moral obligation; It is a sound economic investment. Healthcare systems around the world face pressure to reduce costs while improving outcomes. But ironically, we spend billions dealing with the consequences of unsafe care: adverse events, lawsuits, staff burnout, or avoidable readmissions, rather than preventing them in the first place. They are not small figures. WHO has estimated that unsafe care costs low and middle-income countries about $42 billion each year. And in high-income countries, about one in 10 patients is harmed in a hospital. These are enormous numbers, both in human terms and economic ones. Our goal in this talk is to examine how improving patient safety for both patients and healthcare workers can actually save money, increase quality, and build more resilient systems. We will look at cost structures, return on investment, and real-life examples, including a fascinating case study from a virtual hospital in Germany that implemented peer support programs to mitigate the so-called second victim phenomenon, the emotional and professional toll adverse events take on healthcare professionals. Just to clarify, when I say second victim, I'm not diminishing the suffering of patients, rather, I want to highlight how interconnected safety truly is. A traumatic experience for a nurse or a doctor can lead to presenteeism, burnout and future errors, which ultimately harm more patients and erode trust in the system. Throughout the session, we'll also draw on major reports from OECD and WHO, and explore what economists, policymakers, and safety experts are proposing for smarter, safer, and more sustainable care. So whether you're a healthcare student, a future policymaker, or someone curious about the economics behind quality improvement, I invite you to join me in rethinking safety not just as a clinical outcome but as a strategic investment.