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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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 ...
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.
Dr Michael Leonard and Dr Allan Frankel discuss how leaders can influence their organisations to help create a robust safety culture.
A review of evidence about value improvements made by changing communication, collaboration and support for self-care
This report brings together evidence and provides an up-to-date single reference point for the current state of knowledge about shared decision making.
