ABSTRACT
A number of different perspectives exist, and not all are mutually exclusive. Each view constitutes a model of why unsafe acts occur and how they impact upon the operations in question. Each model generates its own set of countermeasures and preventative policies. This chapter argues that the extremes of both the person and the system models – the dominant views in safety management – have their limitations. The plague model is less a model than a gut reaction to an epidemiological study that found, inter alia, close to 100,000 people dying each year in the United States as the result of ‘preventable’ medical errors. Calling error an ‘epidemic’ puts it in the same category as AIDS, SARS or the Black Death (Pasteurella pestis). A natural step from this perspective is to strive for the removal of error from health care. But, unlike some epidemics, there is no specific remedy for human fallibility.
