Systems Thinking and Patient Safety

摘要

Patient safety is a prominent theme in health care delivery today. This should come as no surprise, given that 'first, do no harm' has been the ethical watchword throughout the history of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. In recent years, we have become increasingly aware of the magnitude of our failure to successfully live up to this ethical imperative. We have also become increasingly aware of techniques that we might employ to bring reality closer to this ideal of doing no (preventable) harm. The realization of the magnitude of this failure and that there are potential routes to reducing harm has fortunately resulted in both a burgeoning of research in the area of patient safety and willingness to invest in patient safety research. This volume-- published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with support from the U.S. Department of Defense--along with its three companion volumes, is testimony to this blossoming of research and funding.