“Safe care for every newborn and every child. Patient safety from the start” with Dr. Ulfat Shaikh

In this episode of the Walk and Talk Improvement Podcast, we partner with the Mapping Healthcare Podcast. Dr. John Fitzsimons and Dr. Ulfat Shaikh explore how patient safety approaches can be applied whilst caring for the youngest members of our communities. They also acknowledge some of the unique features and risks in the care of newborns and children that must be addressed to make care as safe as possible.

This podcast marks the theme of this year's WHO World Patient Safety Day "Safe Care for Every Newborn and Every Child".

Guests:

Dr. Ulfat Shaikh is Professor of Paediatrics and Medical Director of Healthcare Quality at the University of California Davis Health. She focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating health systems improvement methods across a broad range of health care settings to improve health care delivery and outcomes.

She is the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and is on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare. Ulfat was the Associate Editor of PSNet, a national web-based patient safety resource funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and previously served as Clinical Quality Officer at the California Department of Health Care Services.

At the University of California Davis, she has led over 500 clinicians in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives across departments. She was named an American Board of Pediatrics Paul V. Miles Fellow in recognition of her contributions to improving the quality of healthcare for children.

Ulfat has been a practicing paediatrician for 25 years and holds a Doctor of Medicine, master’s in public health, a master’s in clinical research, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. John Fitzsimons is a Consultant Paediatrician with a special interest in allergy at Children’s Health Ireland, Temple Street in Dublin where he is an RCSI Honorary Clinical Associate Professor. He also works with HSE National Quality & Patient Safety (NQPS) as Clinical Director for Quality Improvement (QI) and with the RCPI on QI and Patient Safety Education. He is course director of the HSE funded RCPI Post-Graduate certificate in Quality Improvement Leadership in Healthcare which has over 800 graduates and coached more than 250 improvement projects.

John has contributed to national improvement projects including Irish Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS), Situation Awareness for Everyone (SAFE), the HSE Patient Safety Strategy (2019-2024) and most recently the HSE’s Quality & Patient Safety Competency Navigator (2025). He is a visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for Innovative Human Systems (Human Factors) at Trinity College Dublin. He is an editor of the Oxford Handbook of Patient Safety (2022) and a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of Quality Improvement (2024) and has several peer reviewed publications in the field. He is a regular host and contributor to QI and Patient safety webinars and podcasts in Ireland.

Hosted by: Dr. John Fitzsimons, Consultant Paediatrician, Children’s Health Ireland

Produced by: Juanita Guidera, National Quality and Patient Safety, Health Service Executive, Ireland and GKMedia.ie

About Mapping Healthcare

Mapping Healthcare is a radio show and podcast where a medic with a map explores ways in which people around the globe make the world of healthcare better and what we can learn from them. The host is a paediatrician, educator, and researcher who leads programs to help people access high-quality healthcare and stay healthy. All past episodes are archived below. Find Mapping Healthcare on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.