5.1
Patient Safety Standards
Within 24 months, participating pilot hospitals should establish functional patient safety programs with incident reporting, quarterly safety reviews, and documented corrective actions.
View Domain GuidancePillar 01 · 15 domains
Clinical Excellence, Patient Safety & Quality of Care
Clinical excellence is the foundation of healthcare transformation. Patients must be able to enter a healthcare facility and expect safe, ethical, timely, evidence-based, and respectful care.
What this pillar must achieve
Every Nigerian patient receives safe, standardized, compassionate, and accountable healthcare.
- Comparable safety and quality standards apply wherever a patient is treated.
- Emergency, maternal and critical care pathways function without improvised workarounds.
- Clinical competency is verified rather than assumed.
- Patients understand their rights and can act on them.
Core domains
Grouped for navigation, unchanged in substance
Safe care
- 5.1Patient Safety StandardsA national patient safety framework applying to all levels of care, with incident reporting, review and documented corrective action.
- 5.2Inpatient SafetyA dedicated national standard for ward-level safety, escalation, medication reconciliation and safe discharge.
- 5.4Emergency Care and Trauma SystemsEmergency care as a national priority: zero-refusal policy, standardized triage with time targets, resuscitation readiness and EMS systems.
- 5.9Infection Prevention and ControlIPC as the foundation of patient safety, workforce protection and health security, with committees and monthly indicators.
Clinical reliability
- 5.5Clinical Quality and Standardized Care PathwaysStandardized, evidence-based clinical pathways adapted to the Nigerian context, with training and compliance monitoring.
- 5.8Pharmacy and Medication SafetyLicensed pharmacy oversight, medication reconciliation, high-alert medication protocols and antibiotic stewardship.
Professional competency
Patient centered care
- 5.3Outpatient and Preventive CareOrganized outpatient and preventive services, chronic disease management, and the medical home as a coordinating primary care base.
- 5.12Patient Rights and Ethical Care StandardsA National Patient Rights Charter covering emergency care, dignity, consent, privacy, billing clarity and complaint processes.
- 5.15Right to Nutritional Care and Medical Nutrition TherapyNutrition screening on admission, multidisciplinary nutrition support teams and access to medical nutrition therapy.
External clinical oversight
Additional domains
- 5.7Continuing Professional Development, Training and RecertificationStructured, trackable and enforceable CPD covering clinical, safety, ethics, quality and leadership competencies.
- 5.10Diagnostic Excellence: Laboratory, Imaging and Blood Bank StandardsLaboratory, imaging and blood bank quality, turnaround times, critical result notification and equipment maintenance.
- 5.11Maternal, Neonatal and Critical Care ImprovementMaternal, neonatal and critical care as national quality priorities, with emergency obstetric readiness and mortality reviews.
- 5.14Multidisciplinary Team-Based Care as the Standard of PracticeTeam-based care as the minimum standard in secondary and tertiary facilities, with defined roles and shared accountability.
Priority transformation questions
What leadership should be able to answer
- 01What must every institution be able to demonstrate about patient safety?
- 02Where do clinical pathways most commonly break down?
- 03Which clinical measures should leadership review monthly?
- 04Which competencies must be verified before privileging?
SMART commitments
Time bound objectives drawn from the White Paper
5.2
Inpatient Safety
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should implement standardized inpatient safety checklists in high-volume wards and track preventable adverse events monthly.
View Domain Guidance5.3
Outpatient and Preventive Care
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should implement structured outpatient appointment systems, track clinic waiting times, and establish chronic disease and preventive care registries with documented follow-up protocols.
View Domain Guidance5.4
Emergency Care and Trauma Systems
Within 18 months, pilot emergency departments should implement standardized triage, resuscitation readiness checks, and monthly reporting of door-to-triage and door-to-provider times.
View Domain Guidance5.5
Clinical Quality and Standardized Care Pathways
Within 24 months, pilot hospitals should adopt at least five priority clinical pathways with documented staff training and compliance monitoring.
View Domain Guidance5.6
Credentialing, Privileging and Clinical Competency
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should establish credentialing committees and maintain updated credentialing files for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory personnel, and allied health professionals.
View Domain Guidance5.7
Continuing Professional Development, Training and Recertification
Within 18 months, participating hospitals should implement annual CPD plans and track staff participation through a standardized reporting system.
View Domain Guidance5.8
Pharmacy and Medication Safety
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should implement medication reconciliation, medication error reporting, and high-alert medication protocols in inpatient and emergency units.
View Domain Guidance5.9
Infection Prevention and Control
Within 12 months, participating hospitals should establish or strengthen IPC committees and begin monthly tracking of selected IPC indicators.
View Domain Guidance5.10
Diagnostic Excellence: Laboratory, Imaging and Blood Bank Standards
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should track turnaround times for selected urgent laboratory tests, imaging studies, and blood availability in emergency and critical care settings, and establish preventive maintenance schedules for diagnostic equipment.
View Domain Guidance5.11
Maternal, Neonatal and Critical Care Improvement
Within 24 months, pilot hospitals should conduct monthly maternal and neonatal mortality reviews and implement corrective actions from identified gaps.
View Domain Guidance5.12
Patient Rights and Ethical Care Standards
Within 12 months, participating hospitals should display patient rights publicly and establish a patient complaint and escalation process.
View Domain Guidance5.13
Medical Mission Credentialing and Oversight
Within 12 months, ASQAT should propose a national medical mission credentialing checklist and reporting template.
View Domain Guidance5.14
Multidisciplinary Team-Based Care as the Standard of Practice
Within 12 months, participating hospitals should establish multidisciplinary team-based care committees and demonstrate documented team-based care policies and protocols.
View Domain Guidance5.15
Right to Nutritional Care and Medical Nutrition Therapy
Within 18 months, pilot hospitals should implement nutrition screening within 24 hours of admission and establish multidisciplinary nutrition support teams in inpatient units.
View Domain GuidanceTools and evidence
What is available for this pillar today
Related resources
Assessment tools, checklists and templates for this pillar are published through the standards and resource library as each document is approved.
Open Standards & ResourcesAwaiting approved content
Implementation evidence
Implementation evidence and institutional case studies will be published as they are formally documented and approved.