[THE IMPACT OF REGULATION AND CENTRAL MANAGEMENT ON PATIENT SAFETY IN ISRAEL].

Introduction: An adverse event is defined as an unwanted and unexpected occurrence in a medical process that may end in harm to the patient. In the USA the number of deaths due to failures reaches 253,000 per year. In Israel, over 10,000 deaths occur per year due to errors in the medical treatment of hospitalized patients, the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer. The main cause of failures in medical diagnosis and treatment is the complexity of the medical profession. A large number of caregivers in different medical disciplines are needed to treat one patient, therefore there are many errors, especially regarding communication between therapists. The Israeli health system has been operating with a budget deficit for many years and an addition of at least NIS 20 billion is needed to bring it to optimal functioning. The number of doctors, nurses, and hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants is significantly less than the average of the OECD countries. When there was a 30% increase in the population of Israel it was necessary to enhance the existing situation, with the addition of 7700 hospital beds, but only 1400 were added. This caused a decrease from 2.1 beds per 1000 residents to 1.8 beds per 1000 residents. There is an urgent need to change the elements of treatment safety in the Ministry of Health's strategic plan. An administration for quality, treatment safety, risk management in medicine, and accreditation should be established which, in addition to the care quality division, will include a safety division with investigation and monitoring units and will prepare strategic improvement plans, and a university-level research institute with researchers, computing, statistics, and information gathering units. The institute will receive all reports of adverse events, results of investigations, inspection committees, control and quality committees, relevant verdicts, and updated literature reviews, for research and systemic learning. Strategic plans will be prepared to prevent failures in diagnosis and medical treatment, leading to a decrease in mortality due to adverse events and the significant expenses involved.