The role and value of theory in improvement work in healthcare has been seriously underrecognised. We join others in proposing that more informed use of theory can strengthen improvement programmes ...

Objective To contextualise the degree of harm that comes from unsafe medical care compared with individual health conditions using the global burden of disease (GBD), a metric to determine how much ...

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Safety in healthcare is a constantly moving target. As standards improve and concern for safety grows, we come to regard an increasing number of events as patient safety issues. In this respect, ...

Objectives To determine whether in patients with chronic disease a patient-held medical record (PHR), compared to usual care, improves clinical care, patient outcomes or satisfaction. Design ...

Correspondence to Dr Eduardo Salas, Department of Psychology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA; eduardo.salas{at}rice.edu Front-line medical teams are experiencing unprecedented stressors as a ...

While there is an increasing emphasis on patient empowerment and shared decision making, evidence suggests that many patients do not wish to be involved in decisions about their own care. Previous ...

Background Patient complaints are associated with adverse events and malpractice claims but underused in patient safety improvement. Objective To systematically evaluate the use of patient complaint ...

This example provides a summary of a real case that occurred in a hospital and the failure to learn from the incident in spite of a root cause analysis. In a large acute hospital, a patient underwent ...

Background Despite over a decade of efforts to reduce the adverse event rate in healthcare, the rate has remained relatively unchanged. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a process used by hospitals in an ...

Background: Breakdown in communication among members of the healthcare team threatens the effective delivery of health services, and raises the risk of errors and adverse events. Aim: To describe the ...

Objectives To determine the association of hospital nursing skill mix with patient mortality, patient ratings of their care and indicators of quality of care. Design Cross-sectional patient discharge ...