ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the growing sense of unease about the way we do safety in healthcare together with some exciting ways in which we can do it differently. It discusses the dominant approach to patient safety in healthcare we use. Along with attempts to understand how healthcare fails and how safety in healthcare has been measured so far there have also been advances or so in respect of the concepts and theories associated with safety and healthcare. The chapter proposes that while the dialogue about patient safety has increased significantly we have become stuck. The work of Ignaz Semmelweiss published in 1857 is often quoted as one of the first patient safety research studies into maternal morbidity and mortality and infection control. There are theoretical and practical consequences of root cause analysis on day-to-day operations, strategic management and planning, safety culture and organisational safety.
