Better team working for a safer hospital

Every day, lives are saved by talented and committed clinicians working in hospitals. Despite this, there are still cases where patients die or are harmed unintentionally due to breakdowns in safety. One in ten patients admitted to hospitals in developed countries suffer harm as a result of medical errors. However, research evidence indicates that improved team working can reduce errors and save lives.

Team work is increasingly important because the delivery of patient care is becoming increasingly complex, requiring interactions involving staff, technology and medication. The opportunity for error to creep into the system is high and one of the most pressing challenges facing today’s hospitals is to prevent or mitigate such risk.

There is now widespread recognition that more needs to be done to improve patient safety. In England, the Chief Medical Officer has highlighted the need to pay serious attention to patient safety.

System-wide changes in hospitals are needed to improve safety but these alone will not bring about improvements. To make progress, safety initiatives need to be underpinned by measures to engage clinical teams.

All staff must learn to prioritise safety problems and act on them so that medical mistakes are less likely to happen. Part of this relies on strong hospital leadership – a leadership that can guide and develop teams of clinicians to work together in the most effective ways so that patient safety becomes everyone’s responsibility.