The COVID-19 pandemic: A call to action for health systems in Latin America to strengthen quality of care.

The Covid-19 and other recent pandemics has highlighted existing weakness in health systems across the Latin-America and the Caribbean (LAC) region to effectively prepare for and respond to Public Health Emergencies. It has been stated that quality of care will be among the most influential factors on Covid 19 mortality rates and low systems performance is the common case in these countries. More comprehensive and system level strategies are required to address the challenges.

Train-the-Trainers in hand hygiene: a standardized approach to guide education in infection prevention and control.

Background: Harmonization in hand hygiene training for infection prevention and control (IPC) professionals is lacking. We describe a standardized approach to training, using a "Train-the-Trainers" (TTT) concept for IPC professionals and assess its impact on hand hygiene knowledge in six countries.

Methods: We developed a three-day simulation-based TTT course based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy.

Correction to: Train-the-Trainers in hand hygiene: a standardized approach to guide education in infection prevention and control.

The original article [1] contained a misspelling in author, Fernando Bellissimo-Rodrigues's name which has since been corrected.

Prevalence of adverse events in the hospitals of five Latin American countries: results of the 'Iberoamerican Study of Adverse Events' (IBEAS).

Background: Interest in patient safety (PS) is growing exponentially, fuelled by epidemiological research unveiling the extent of unsafe care. However, there is little information about the frequency of harm in developing and transitional countries. To address this issue, the authors performed a study known as the Iberoamerican Adverse Event Study, through a collaborative between the governments of Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality, the Pan American Health Organization and the WHO Patient Safety.

[IBEAS design: adverse events prevalence in Latin American hospitals].

Objectives: To describe the methodological characteristics of the IBEAS study: adverse events prevalence in Latin American hospitals, with the aim of analysing the magnitude, significance and impact of adverse events (AE); to identify the main problems associated with patient safety AE; to increase the capacity of professionals involved in patient safety; and the setting up of patient safety agendas in the participating countries.

Methods: A patient safety study launched in 35 Latin American hospitals through the analysis of AE in 5 countries: Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, using a cross-sectional study using a review of clinical records as the main method.

Results: The implications of using a cross-sectional design when studying AE are described, in terms of resources required, internal validity and usefulness related to risk management.