The Role of Ethics in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Quality Improvement (QI) programs and patient safety are the key elements of contemporary healthcare systems, as they are stipulated in terms of patient outcomes, error prevention, and op-timization of healthcare delivery. The combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies into QI programs has potentially transformative potential, but it also raises serious ethical issues. This paper examines ethical implications associated with QI and patient safety in health care with the four fundamental ethical principles, such as beneficence, nonmalefi-cence, justice and autonomy. The study describes major ethical dilemmas of using digital health technologies and presents them through the review of recent literature, covering studies on AI in healthcare, patient safety protocols, and evidence-based practices. Results have identified issues of patient well-being, privacy of patient data, health care access equity, and informed consent in healthcare systems based on AI. The paper highlights the importance of explicit ethical standards and regulatory policies that would guarantee that QI programs and AI technologies are used in the best interest of patients without infringing on their rights. The review recommends enhancing the frequency of communication, patient engagement, and ethical considerations in AI implemen-tation in the healthcare industry to maintain ethical integrity and advance patient safety. The study will serve as an addition to the current debate on the way to reconcile the technological progress, as well as the ethical healthcare practices, in the search for better patient outcomes.