This book offers a new, practical approach to healthcare reform. Departing from the priorities applied in traditional approaches, it instead assesses – both theoretically and practically – the successful lessons learned in other safety-critical industries, and applies them to healthcare settings. The authors focus on the importance of human factors and performance measures to establish proactive, systematic methods for healthcare system design. This approach helps to identify potential hazards before accidents occur, enhancing patient safety.

In addition, the book details the new approach on the basis of real-world applications in the NHS and insights from NHS staff. Case studies and results are presented, demonstrating the significant improvements that can be achieved in risk reduction and safety culture.

Lastly, the book outlines what steps healthcare organisations need to take in order to successfully adopt this new approach. The approach and experiential learning is brought together through the development of a new holistic patient safety education syllabus.