BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes an escalating global public health menace, intensified by the excessive utilization of antibiotics in human healthcare and agriculture. In the Philippines, the extensive misuse of antimicrobials in food production, especially in chicken, swine, aquaculture, and agriculture exacerbate AMR, presenting considerable threats to public health. Since the transmission of AMR is closely linked to food safety, food handlers play a critical role in mitigating its spread. This study evaluates the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of food handlers in the Greater Manila Area concerning AMR and the utilization of antimicrobials.

This quasi-experimental study involved developing and implementing a customized training program based on pre-training KAP questionnaires, featuring specialized training materials for fruits and vegetables sellers, meat handlers, seafood vendors, and street food vendors. The training, conducted in partnership with government entities and industry specialists, emphasized AMR awareness, food safety rules, and optimal procedures for reducing AMR hazards.

The results showed statistically significant differences in pre- and post-intervention mean percentage scores in the participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices about food handling and AMR. There was also substantial improvement observed across all four occupational groups as post-test scores increased in comparison to their baseline scores.

This study underscores the pivotal role of food handlers in combating AMR and stresses the necessity for a training program that is focused on AMR education within food safety initiatives. The training program should be customized, for example, according to the length of experience of the food handler, to either provide basic food safety measures or to improve and upgrade the acquired baseline knowledge and skills related to food safety. This particular study showed the importance of providing food handlers with essential knowledge and skills on food safety and proper food handling to aid in the mitigation of AMR transmission.

The objective of inspection, testing and supervision of medical devices is to ensure the effectiveness and safety of medical devices in use. Leachables are substances that are leached from medical devices or materials during their clinical use. Leachables are important factors for the safety risks of medical devices. The analysis, detection, and safety evaluation of leachables are important parts of the safety evaluation of medical devices. The allowable limits for leachable substances which are established on the toxicological research provide a scientific basis for the judgment of qualitative and quantitative analysis results. Obtaining more detailed, rigorous and sufficient toxicological research data is of great significance to set highly enforceable product technical indicators. For the establishment of allowable limits for leachable substances, its role in the safety evaluation of medical devices is summarized, and the relevant standards and their implementation status in the testing of medical devices are introduced.
Equipment and Supplies/standards* ; Equipment Safety

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">There is a call for changes in health professions education to help address current and future challenges. For the effective management of change in institutions involved with health professions education, it is important to consider organizational readiness for change and psychological safety. In organizations, the presence of psychological safety facilitates learning that is integral in organizational development, especially those undergoing changes. There are tools available to measure organizational readiness to change and psychological safety but they are separate and tend to be lengthy. The study developed and validated a brief, straightforward tool that integrates psychological safety in the measurement of organizational readiness for change. It can be useful in the assessment of academic organizations undergoing change in order to facilitate implementation and promote effective change.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The study used a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. A conceptual framework on organizational readiness to change which included psychological safety was developed from a review of literature. Relevant constructs were defined and corresponding questions were constructed and scaled. Five content experts qualitatively assessed the scale and removed items which were redundant, lacked clarity, or were irrelevant. The items were then reviewed by selected participants to ensure face validity. Finally, the questionnaire was administered to members of a unit (N=89) which was undergoing organizational change to ensure construct validity. Construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were determined using PLS-SEM and yielded acceptable results.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The scale developed addressed components of organizational readiness to change and psychological safety. The scale was deemed to have good content validity by five experts, good face validity as tested by a small pilot group, and acceptable construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The quantitative scale developed for measuring readiness to change was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively, and deemed to have relevance and validity. It can be used by academic units embarking on change initiatives to assess organizational readiness with due consideration for psychological safety. Quantitative results from the tool can be supplemented with qualitative measures such as observations, interviews or focused group discussions to better identify and address areas needing attention. The study has the potential to make a significant contribution to both the theory and practice of change management.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Proper documentation of patient safety events is important to be able to provide changes that can prevent events from occurring again. The Philippine General Hospital launched an online platform for reporting patient safety events in 2017. This paper aimed to describe the patient safety events, initial response to the event, and preventive actions done in the institution.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">This is a retrospective descriptive study of patient safety event records from August 2017 to April 2022. General data of the patients, details surrounding the events, response to the event, and preventive measures done after the event were documented. Descriptive analysis was performed.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">There was a total of 625 events reported with 525 total unique reports. There was an increased rate of patient safety event reports from 2021 to 2022. The average rate was 23.8 and 25.7 reports per month, respectively. Most reports were for in-patient cases and were type 3 preventable adverse events. The general initial response of healthcare personnel to the adverse events is to provide the appropriate clinical care. Preventive measures include re-orientation and event specific actions.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Documentation is crucial for patient safety events to provide solutions and prevent reoccurrence of these events that can cause harm to patients.

Patient Safety ; Patients ; Safety

BACKGROUND

Medication safety is a global priority, yet in the Philippines, particularly in rural hospitals, it remains underexplored. Nurses are at the frontline of safeguarding patients, often working under resource constraints.

This study explored nurses' perspectives on medication safety in rural Philippine hospitals, while focusing on systemic barriers, emotional and ethical challenges, and strategies employed to sustain safe practice.

Aqualitative design was used that employed focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs) with staff nurses in rural hospitals. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes and subthemes emerging from participants' experiences.

Three themes emerged: (1) Building Responsibility and Skills (accountability, verification, documentation, and mentorship); (2) Keeping Patients Safe and Reducing Mistakes (protecting patient care, overcoming systemic barriers); and (3) Handling Emotions and Challenges in Giving Medicine (coping with guilt, moral distress, and reliance on teamwork). Findings revealed that nurses sustain safety through vigilance and accountability but are constrained by chronic understaffing, interruptions, moral distress, and limited training access.

Medication safety in rural Philippine hospitals is shaped by nurses' competence, emotional resilience, and teamwork, but remained fragile without systemic supports. Implications included equitable workforce policies, supportive errorreporting cultures, and strengthened continuing professional development opportunities. Strengthening safety also required shifting from individual responsibility to organizational and system-level accountability.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">There is a call for changes in health professions education to help address current and future challenges. For the effective management of change in institutions involved with health professions education, it is important to consider organizational readiness for change and psychological safety. In organizations, the presence of psychological safety facilitates learning that is integral in organizational development, especially those undergoing changes. There are tools available to measure organizational readiness to change and psychological safety but they are separate and tend to be lengthy. The study developed and validated a brief, straightforward tool that integrates psychological safety in the measurement of organizational readiness for change. It can be useful in the assessment of academic organizations undergoing change in order to facilitate implementation and promote effective change.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The study used a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. A conceptual framework on organizational readiness to change which included psychological safety was developed from a review of literature. Relevant constructs were defined and corresponding questions were constructed and scaled. Five content experts qualitatively assessed the scale and removed items which were redundant, lacked clarity, or were irrelevant. The items were then reviewed by selected participants to ensure face validity. Finally, the questionnaire was administered to members of a unit (N=89) which was undergoing organizational change to ensure construct validity. Construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were determined using PLS-SEM and yielded acceptable results.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The scale developed addressed components of organizational readiness to change and psychological safety. The scale was deemed to have good content validity by five experts, good face validity as tested by a small pilot group, and acceptable construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The quantitative scale developed for measuring readiness to change was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively, and deemed to have relevance and validity. It can be used by academic units embarking on change initiatives to assess organizational readiness with due consideration for psychological safety. Quantitative results from the tool can be supplemented with qualitative measures such as observations, interviews or focused group discussions to better identify and address areas needing attention. The study has the potential to make a significant contribution to both the theory and practice of change management.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Proper documentation of patient safety events is important to be able to provide changes that can prevent events from occurring again. The Philippine General Hospital launched an online platform for reporting patient safety events in 2017. This paper aimed to describe the patient safety events, initial response to the event, and preventive actions done in the institution.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">This is a retrospective descriptive study of patient safety event records from August 2017 to April 2022. General data of the patients, details surrounding the events, response to the event, and preventive measures done after the event were documented. Descriptive analysis was performed.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">There was a total of 625 events reported with 525 total unique reports. There was an increased rate of patient safety event reports from 2021 to 2022. The average rate was 23.8 and 25.7 reports per month, respectively. Most reports were for in-patient cases and were type 3 preventable adverse events. The general initial response of healthcare personnel to the adverse events is to provide the appropriate clinical care. Preventive measures include re-orientation and event specific actions.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Documentation is crucial for patient safety events to provide solutions and prevent reoccurrence of these events that can cause harm to patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Medication errors pose substantial risks in hospitals, particularly concerning patient safety. These errors, occurring throughout the medication use process, are one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in clinical practice. In the Philippines, there is a lack of evidence on the prevalence and effects of medication errors, emphasizing the need for further investigation. This study evaluated the prescribing, transcribing, and monitoring errors among inpatients under the Pulmonary Medicine Service of the Department of Medicine in the Philippine General Hospital.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">This cross-sectional retrospective records review used the total population purposive sampling technique to examine eligible charts of inpatients with asthma and/or COPD from August 1 to December 31, 2022. The frequency, type, and severity of medication errors were determined. Linear regression and Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the relationship between patient-related factors and medication errors, and length of hospital stay and mortality.

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Fifty (50) out of 226 medical records were processed and analyzed. Included patients were predominantly older male adults. More than two-thirds of the patients were diagnosed with COPD while approximately one-fourth suffered from asthma. All patients were practicing polypharmacy and the vast majority presented with comorbidities. A total of 6,517 medication errors, predominantly prescribing errors (99.1%), were identified. Despite the high prevalence of medication errors, the majority were classified as “error, no harm” (98.8%), while only 1.17% were deemed as “error, harm.” As the frequency of prescribing errors increases in the power of three (rough approximation of e), from 1 to 3 to 9 to 27, etc., the expected hospital stay increases by 2.078 days (pCONCLUSION

data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">All eligible patient charts had at least one medication error, with the majority being prescribing errors. Among the variables, prescribing errors significantly affected the length of stay, while severity of transcribing errors had a marginally significant effect. It is essential to develop comprehensive education and training initiatives and adopt a systematic approach to mitigate medication errors and promote patient safety.

Philippines ; Health ; Safety