Evolution of the national patient safety program: an analysis of the public data made available by the National Health Surveilance Agency

Introduction: The Brazilian Patient Safety Program (PNSP, in Portuguese), was established in 2013 in Brazil and, with it, a legislation that turns the formation of Patient Safety Committees (NSP, in Portuguese) and incidents notifications by health services compulsory. Since then, the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) publishes newsletters that contain compiled information of the notifications received; however, it does not compare it over time. Objective: Analyze the evolution of the Brazilian Patient Safety Program in five years. Method: Retrospective study, based on documents analysis. It is a review of Anvisa's publications, that are called Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare Newsletters (Boletim Seguranca do Paciente e Qualidade em Servicos de Satide), from 2015 to 2019. Results: There was an increase of 416.00% on the NSP; however, this number represents less than 50.00% of Brazilian hospitals. Notifications have enhanced over 900.00%, but it is still necessary to qualify the information before submitting it to Anvisa. The comparison of cases proportions has shown that there was a slight decrease of severe damage and death, but 1,491 lives were lost due to adverse events in health on the studied period. Studies that assess national action's impact on healthcare results must be encouraged. Conclusions: Coordinated actions of health surveillance and assistance must be intensified, in order to patient safety become into a real priority of the Brazilian public healthcare system. Despite not having a perennial action financing policy, PNSP has caused a positive evolution over the years, and Brazilian institutions and health professionals have a huge potential for saving lives.