Turning the supertanker
The NHS is often compared to a supertanker – huge and slow moving – but, in at least one regard, this analogy doesn’t work. That area is money. Whilst the sums involved in health care are huge, the fi...
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Amazing that the NHS has changed as much as it has
Clearly the NHS is under stress. Up until now the quality of care broadly seems to have held up, as QualityWatch – our joint programme with the Nuffield Trust – showed last October. But the cracks are...
Quality control: keeping a tight grip on systems
There is a paradox about safety in hospitals. In more than 20 years of research I often found errors in 5-10% (and sometimes far higher) of actions, and yet there are certain areas of hospitals in whi...
The road to a national strategy for human factors: Part 2 - forging the right links
In many respects the NHS can be proud of what it’s done around human factors. No other national health care system has yet tried to do what we’re doing, so it’s no surprise that it’s hard. It’s been m...
Four lessons for running impactful collaboratives in health care
Human beings are social animals and, while most breakthrough ideas and insights come from individuals, execution of these ideas is largely done through collaboration. Whether feats of engineering, a s...
An invitation to Quality Improvement
Be honest. We’ve all been in a situation where we know that something isn’t what it should be, but have reassured ourselves that it’s someone else’s responsibility. This might be something small, like...
A year on from Berwick: putting safety at the heart of good care
A year on from A promise to learn – a commitment to act, the two questions we should ask are ‘Have we learnt?’ and ‘Did we act?’ These questions could be answered from many perspectives. As an ...
Personal accountability in healthcare
Professor Robert Wachter explores the issue of personal accountability in healthcare and describes how accountability for performance is a key element for a safe system.
How can leaders influence a safety culture?
Dr Michael Leonard and Dr Allan Frankel discuss how leaders can influence their organisations to help create a robust safety culture.
Do changes to patient–provider relationships improve quality and save money?
A review of evidence about value improvements made by changing communication, collaboration and support for self-care
