ABSTRACT
Healthcare is provided within a set of systems, either the whole hospital, a complex interacting set of functions that work together to treat patients or the larger healthcare system such as the National Health Service (NHS). The system is designed for better or worse, and that design helps or hinders the behaviour and performance of the individuals who work within it: the clinicians, the managers, the administrators and so on. Those who work in patient safety have also looked to other high-risk industries, such as the aviation and the nuclear industry, to learn about concepts like high-reliability organisations, LEAN methodology and resilience engineering. Concepts such as risk resilience have been embraced by these industries and are starting to be picked up by healthcare. Safety I and Safety II are therefore complementary rather than incompatible or conflicting. Additional concepts that have increased over the last 15 years include the integration of human factors and ergonomics within healthcare and patient safety.
