Patient Safety from the Start: Preventing Harm in Pediatric Care

Every child deserves safe, high-quality healthcare from their very first breath. Yet newborns and young children face unique risks that make them especially vulnerable to harm in healthcare settings. Their rapid development, evolving health needs, and limited ability to communicate symptoms mean that even a single safety incident can have lifelong consequences.

This year, World Patient Safety Day 2025 shines a light on these challenges with the theme “Safe care for every newborn and every child” and the powerful slogan “Patient safety from the start!” The World Health Organization (WHO) calls on healthcare leaders, providers, families, and communities to unite in action and work together to prevent avoidable harm and create a safer future for every child.

At Performance Health Partners (PHP), we believe that building safer systems begins with listening to children and families, supporting caregivers, and empowering healthcare teams through incident reporting and learning systems that drive lasting improvements.

Why Pediatric Safety Matters More Than Ever

Children need care that is carefully tailored to their age, size, development, and individual circumstances. This means adjusting medications to the right dosage, ensuring equipment is designed for smaller bodies, and supporting families in making informed decisions.

According to the WHO, children face heightened risks in:

• Medication use, where dosage errors can occur more easily due to weight-based calculations. It has been estimated that pediatric patients in the United States experience up to 7.5 million preventable medication errors annually. Moreover, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients in particular are more likely to experience a medication error than other hospital patients and to experience more harm when a medication error occurs. The incidence of medication errors occurring during the care of infants of 24–27 weeks’ gestation age is reported as high as 57%.
• Intensive care units and complex treatments, where interventions are frequent and highly technical. Studies estimate that NICUs experience anywhere from 13 to 91 medication errors per 100 NICU admissions.
• Diagnostic accuracy, where subtle symptoms may be missed or misinterpreted.
• Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), where immature immune systems increase vulnerability. A study of one medical center found that around 24% of pediatric patients developed HAIs, due to issues such as malnutrition, insufficient antibiotics, and incorrect blood transfusions.
• Equipment and monitoring, where shortages or incorrect sizes can delay or complicate treatment.

Socio-economic barriers compound these risks. Families with limited resources may struggle to access timely care, advocate for their child’s needs, or understand complex medical instructions, making health equity a critical part of the patient safety conversation.

Key Messages for Safer Pediatric Care

The WHO’s campaign highlights several guiding principles that every healthcare team can adopt to better protect children:

1. Tailor care for children: Adapt interventions to each child’s stage of development, size, and health condition. Always verify identity and allergies before treatment.
2. Work with families and children: Engage families as active partners. Listening, explaining clearly, and providing reassurance help children and parents feel safe.
3. Spot the risks and act early: Recognize early signs of deterioration, watch for common causes of harm (medication errors, infections, diagnostic issues), and respond quickly.
4. Communicate clearly: Share information openly with colleagues during handoffs or referrals, and with families at every step.
5. Contribute to improvement: Report safety concerns and near misses. Every report builds a culture of continuous improvement.
6. Deliver child-centered care: Create environments where safety and comfort go hand-in-hand, ensuring children are treated with dignity and compassion.

These principles emphasize that patient safety isn't a one-time action, but a continuous practice built into every interaction, every handoff, and every system of care.

The Role of Incident Reporting in Pediatric Safety

One of the most powerful tools in preventing harm to pediatric patients is incident reporting software. Too often, risks go unnoticed or unreported until harm occurs. By creating systems where every healthcare worker feels empowered to raise concerns without fear of blame, organizations can identify hazards earlier and act before an incident escalates.

For example, one pediatric university hospital’s incident reporting system allowed for 57% of medication errors involving high-alert medications to be reported by registered nurses over a period of two years.

Incident reporting systems help promote pediatric safety by:

• Spotting trends early: Aggregating reports reveals hidden patterns, like recurring near misses with a particular medication or equipment shortage.
• Addressing systemic gaps: Reports highlight where processes fail, whether in communication, equipment availability, or training.
• Empowering staff voices: Nurses, physicians, and allied staff can share real-time insights from the front line.
• Engaging families: Incorporating feedback and safety concerns from parents can uncover risks that staff may not see.
• Driving accountability and learning: Every report becomes an opportunity to learn and improve, rather than assign blame.

At PHP, we’ve seen how our clients have achieved measurable improvements through streamlined reporting: increases of up to 860% in reporting rates, 4x faster resolution times, and 50% reductions in medication errors. These outcomes matter deeply in pediatric care, where the stakes are lifelong.

Building Safer Systems for Children

Children’s safety depends on safe systems, not just individual actions. Even the most skilled clinician can only do so much if systems are fragmented, equipment is lacking, or reporting channels are unclear.

That’s why the WHO emphasizes that every voice counts—from frontline clinicians and support staff to parents and community advocates. Together, these voices strengthen systems by ensuring:

• Integrated health systems: Seamless coordination across hospitals, clinics, and community settings reduces gaps where harm can occur.
• Supported staff: Training, adequate resources, and a culture of psychological safety allow staff to perform at their best.
• Engaged caregivers: Parents and caregivers are integral to spotting changes in a child’s condition, raising concerns, and partnering in safety decisions.

A culture of safety is built when leaders prioritize reporting, when staff know their input matters, and when families feel heard.

Patient Safety from the Start: A Shared Responsibility

The slogan “Patient safety from the start!” is both a rallying cry and a reminder: protecting children’s health requires urgent, consistent action across all levels of healthcare.

This World Patient Safety Day, we join the WHO in calling for:

• Governments and organizations to implement sustainable strategies for pediatric safety.
• Healthcare providers to embrace continuous improvement through reporting and learning systems.
• Parents and caregivers to speak up, ask questions, and partner in safety efforts.
• Researchers and policymakers to strengthen the evidence base for pediatric safety practices.

By mobilizing together, we can eliminate avoidable harm in pediatric care and ensure that every child’s right to safe, quality care is upheld from the very beginning.

How PHP Supports Safer Pediatric Care

At Performance Health Partners, our software helps health systems put these principles into practice by:

• Simplifying incident reporting so every staff member can quickly document concerns.
• Identifying hidden risks through real-time analytics that surface patterns in pediatric care.
• Reducing response times with automated workflows that ensure urgent issues are addressed quickly.
• Engaging teams and families by making safety reporting transparent and actionable.

By equipping organizations with tools that make it easier to report, analyze, and act on safety data, we help ensure safer care for the youngest and most vulnerable patients.

Final Thoughts

Children are our most precious patients. Their health journeys begin before they can advocate for themselves, making it our collective responsibility to ensure their care is safe, compassionate, and tailored to their unique needs.

On World Patient Safety Day 2025, let’s recommit to building systems that prevent harm before it happens, elevate every voice in safety, and use incident reporting to transform risks into opportunities for improvement.

Because when it comes to children, patient safety truly must start from the very beginning.