Author(s)

Joseph C. Hokororo^1*, Michael Habtu², Radenta P. Bahegwa¹, Ruth R. Ngowi¹, Yohanes S. Msigwa¹, Mbwana M. Degeh¹, Erick S. Kinyenje¹, Omary A. Nassoro¹, Laura E. Marandu¹, Chrisogone J. German¹, Edwin Mkwama³, Bushi Lugoba⁴, Grace E. Saguti², Zabulon Yoti², Eliudi S. Eliakimu^1*

¹Health Quality Assurance Unit, Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania.
²World Health Organization, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
³Centre for Distance Education, Morogoro, Tanzania.
⁴Benjamin Mkapa Hospital, Dodoma, Tanzania.

Introduction: The need to address the problem of patient safety has been a focus of World Health Assembly (WHA) meetings of 2002, 2019 and 2021. The 2019 WHA Resolution urged the Member States to take action on patient safety. We aimed to review patient safety efforts in Tanzania from 2002 to 2022 to inform improvement efforts towards the 2030 target. Methods: A rapid literature review was conducted between January 2002 and April 2022. We searched Google, PubMed and PubMed Central in April and May 2022 using the following search terms: PubMed—“patient safety Tanzania”, “blood safety in Tanzania”, “safe surgery Tanzania”, and “healthcare-associated infections Tanzania”; Google—“blood safety in Tanzania”, injection safety in Tanzania”, “infection prevention and control”, “radiation safety in health facilities in Tanzania”; and PubMed Central—“injection safety in Tanzania. Results: The search identified 4160 articles, of which 4053 were removed in initial screening; 21 were duplicates, giving 86 relevant articles for full screening. Of the 86 articles, 04 were removed after the full screening, hence remaining with 82 articles. Among the 82 eligible articles, 27 are on IPC, 26 on safe surgery, 12 on blood safety, 07 on radiation safety, 06 on injection safety, and 02 on medication safety. One article was relevant to—blood safety, IPC and injection safety; and one article was relevant to—IPC and injection safety. Conclusion: Most of the eligible literature was on IPC and safe surgery, followed by blood safety, radiation safety, injection safety and medication safety. The literature on IPC has highlighted the need to strengthen efforts to address AMR. Findings from the implementation of the safe surgery 2020 intervention warrants for its scale-up to other zones. There is a need to strengthen hemovigilance and pharmacovigilance functions; and strengthen quality management and assurance systems and regulatory functions to ensure radiation safety.

Patient Safety, Safe Surgery, Infection Prevention and Control, Medication Safety, Radiation Safety

Hokororo, J. , Habtu, M. , Bahegwa, R. , Ngowi, R. , Msigwa, Y. , Degeh, M. , Kinyenje, E. , Nassoro, O. , Marandu, L. , German, C. , Mkwama, E. , Lugoba, B. , Saguti, G. , Yoti, Z. and Eliakimu, E. (2022) Patient Safety Efforts in Tanzania: A Rapid Review of Two-Decades Efforts (2002-2022) to Inform Interventions towards Attainment of 2030 Targets. Advances in Infectious Diseases, 12, 466-495. doi: 10.4236/aid.2022.123036.