DOH Patient Safety & Ethics — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which international patient safety goal, adopted by DOH-accredited hospitals in Abu Dhabi, aims to prevent wrong-site surgeries?
- Goal 1: Correctly identify patients
- Goal 4: Ensure correct-site, correct-procedure, correct-patient surgery (Correct answer)
- Goal 2: Improve effective communication
- Goal 6: Reduce the risk of patient harm from falls
Correct answer: Goal 4: Ensure correct-site, correct-procedure, correct-patient surgery
Joint Commission International (JCI) Goal 4 requires facilities to implement a surgical time-out and site-marking protocol to prevent wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient surgeries.
Question 2: A competent adult patient in Abu Dhabi refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds. What is the ethical and legal obligation of the healthcare team?
- Administer the transfusion to save the patient's life regardless
- Respect the patient's refusal, document it, and provide alternative care (Correct answer)
- Seek a court order immediately
- Discharge the patient without treatment
Correct answer: Respect the patient's refusal, document it, and provide alternative care
Respect for patient autonomy requires that a competent adult's informed refusal be honoured; the team must document the refusal, explain risks, and offer alternative management options.
Question 3: Which colour-coded wristband is universally used in Abu Dhabi DOH-accredited hospitals to indicate a patient has a known drug allergy?
- Yellow
- Blue
- Red (Correct answer)
- Green
Correct answer: Red
A red wristband is the internationally recognised and DOH-recommended standard to identify patients with known drug or other allergies, alerting all clinical staff.
Question 4: What does the 'Just Culture' principle in patient safety focus on?
- Punishing every healthcare worker involved in an error
- Distinguishing between individual blameworthy behaviour and system failures to promote error reporting (Correct answer)
- Eliminating all adverse events within one year
- Requiring patients to sign liability waivers
Correct answer: Distinguishing between individual blameworthy behaviour and system failures to promote error reporting
Just Culture distinguishes reckless or intentional behaviour (which is blameworthy) from human or system errors, encouraging transparent reporting without fear of disproportionate punishment.
Question 5: In Abu Dhabi healthcare settings, which process ensures that verbal medication orders are accurately executed to reduce transcription errors?
- Double-signature policy
- Read-back and verify protocol (Correct answer)
- Automatic dispensing cabinet use
- Colour-coded medication labels
Correct answer: Read-back and verify protocol
The read-back (or repeat-back) protocol requires the receiver of a verbal or phone order to repeat the order aloud for confirmation by the prescriber before it is executed.
Question 6: Confidentiality of patient information under UAE law may be breached without patient consent in which situation?
- When requested by the patient's employer
- When required by a court order or to prevent serious harm to a third party (Correct answer)
- When the patient is a non-UAE national
- When requested by a family member
Correct answer: When required by a court order or to prevent serious harm to a third party
UAE law permits disclosure of patient information without consent when ordered by a court or when there is a serious, credible risk of harm to identifiable third parties, consistent with international bioethical standards.
DOH Patient Safety & Ethics
Which international patient safety goal, adopted by DOH-accredited hospitals in Abu Dhabi, aims to prevent wrong-site surgeries?