UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Why patient safety needs more than hospital checklists
Q1. Consider the following statements comparing successive editions of World Patient Safety Day:
1. The 2024 observance was devoted to improving diagnosis for patient safety and carried the slogan "Get it right, make it safe!".
2. The 2025 observance shifted the focus to newborns and children, under the slogan "Patient safety from the start!".
3. Unlike both of these, the first observance held in 2019 carried no slogan, being confined to the theme "Medication Without Harm".
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The 2024 observance was devoted to improving diagnosis for patient safety and carried the slogan "Get it right, make it safe!".
- The 2025 observance shifted the focus to newborns and children, under the slogan "Patient safety from the start!".
- Unlike both of these, the first observance held in 2019 carried no slogan, being confined to the theme "Medication Without Harm".
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q2. Which one of the following was the theme of the first-ever World Patient Safety Day, observed after its institution by the World Health Assembly?
- A. Engaging patients for patient safety
- B. Patient safety: a global health priority
- C. Medication without harm in health care
- D. Improving diagnosis for patient safety
Q3. Consider the following statements regarding the 2026 edition of World Patient Safety Day as compared with earlier editions:
1. The 2026 edition is the first since the Day's institution for which a campaign slogan has been adopted, earlier editions having carried only themes.
2. WHO cites the fact that noncommunicable diseases account for about 74% of deaths worldwide as the rationale for the 2026 theme.
3. WHO notes that globally about 1 in 10 patients is harmed during health care, with around half of this harm considered preventable.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The 2026 edition is the first since the Day's institution for which a campaign slogan has been adopted, earlier editions having carried only themes.
- WHO cites the fact that noncommunicable diseases account for about 74% of deaths worldwide as the rationale for the 2026 theme.
- WHO notes that globally about 1 in 10 patients is harmed during health care, with around half of this harm considered preventable.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q4. The slogan "Safe care for life!" was adopted for the edition of World Patient Safety Day observed in which one of the following years?
- A. 2022, the edition whose theme concerned medication safety
- B. 2024, the edition whose theme concerned improving diagnosis
- C. 2025, the edition whose theme concerned newborn and child care
- D. 2026, the edition whose theme concerned noncommunicable diseases
Q5. In the Swiss cheese model of accident causation, an adverse event in a hospital is held to occur principally when which one of the following happens?
- A. The holes in successive layers of defence momentarily line up, letting a hazard pass through every barrier
- B. A single defensive layer is withdrawn, the remaining layers being incapable of acting independently of it
- C. The number of defensive layers exceeds what frontline staff can realistically apply, producing checklist fatigue
- D. An unsafe act is committed by a frontline worker in the absence of any latent weakness in the organisation
Q6. With reference to the Swiss cheese model of safety, consider the following:
1. The model was propounded by James Reason and represents organisational defences as slices of cheese whose holes are failure modes.
2. "Active failures" in the model denote dormant decisions taken by designers and managers far removed from the bedside.
3. "Latent conditions" are pre-existing organisational or design weaknesses that may lie unrecognised before combining with other factors.
4. The model holds that the defensive layers are static, the holes in them being fixed in size and position by design.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- The model was propounded by James Reason and represents organisational defences as slices of cheese whose holes are failure modes.
- "Active failures" in the model denote dormant decisions taken by designers and managers far removed from the bedside.
- "Latent conditions" are pre-existing organisational or design weaknesses that may lie unrecognised before combining with other factors.
- The model holds that the defensive layers are static, the holes in them being fixed in size and position by design.
- A. 1 and 2
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 3 only
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q7. The Surgical Safety Checklist in worldwide use, which includes the "timeout" before skin incision, was developed and issued by which one of the following bodies?
- A. The Joint Commission International, under its hospital accreditation standards programme
- B. The World Health Organization, under its Safe Surgery Saves Lives challenge
- C. The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, under its international standards for safe practice
- D. The World Bank, under its Global Financing Facility for health systems strengthening
Q8. In the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, the "timeout" refers to which one of the following?
- A. A pause before the induction of anaesthesia, when the anaesthetist confirms equipment, monitoring and the patient's known allergies
- B. A pause immediately before skin incision, when the whole team verbally confirms patient identity, surgical site and the procedure planned
- C. A pause before the patient leaves the operating room, when instrument, sponge and needle counts are confirmed and specimens labelled
- D. A mandated rest interval between consecutive operations on a list, intended to limit fatigue in the surgical team
Q9. India's National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) were first applied to which one of the following categories of facility, before being extended to sub-district hospitals, community health centres and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs?
- A. District hospitals
- B. Government medical college hospitals
- C. Integrated public health laboratories
- D. Urban primary health centres
Q10. The National Quality Assurance Standards, under which public health facilities in India are certified, were developed by which one of the following?
- A. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India
- B. The National Health Systems Resource Centre, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- C. The National Health Authority, the agency implementing Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY
- D. The Indian Council of Medical Research, under the Department of Health Research
Q11. The Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 was adopted under which one of the following?
- A. The Seventy-second World Health Assembly in 2019, through resolution WHA72.6 on global action on patient safety
- B. The Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly in 2021, the mandate for the plan flowing from an earlier 2019 resolution
- C. The Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in 2022, alongside the launch of the Medication Without Harm challenge
- D. The Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly in 2016, alongside the launch of the Safe Surgery Saves Lives challenge
Q12. With reference to WHO's treatment of diagnostic safety as a systems problem, consider the following:
1. Diagnostic errors are estimated by WHO to contribute to about 16% of avoidable patient harm.
2. "Get it right, make it safe!" was the slogan of the observance devoted to improving diagnosis for patient safety.
3. Cognitive biases among health workers are identified by WHO as a factor to be addressed alongside health system policies and care processes.
4. WHO holds that diagnostic safety is best secured by confining the diagnostic process to the treating clinician and minimising the patient's role in decision-making.
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?
- Diagnostic errors are estimated by WHO to contribute to about 16% of avoidable patient harm.
- "Get it right, make it safe!" was the slogan of the observance devoted to improving diagnosis for patient safety.
- Cognitive biases among health workers are identified by WHO as a factor to be addressed alongside health system policies and care processes.
- WHO holds that diagnostic safety is best secured by confining the diagnostic process to the treating clinician and minimising the patient's role in decision-making.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1, 2 and 3
- C. 2 and 4 only
- D. 3 and 4 only