Organisations and safety in health care
- Correspondence to: Dr R L Wears Clinical Safety Research Unit, St Mary’s Hospital, Praed Street, London W2 1NY, UK; r.wearsimperial.ac.uk
The role that organisations play in provoking or preventing accidents1 has been long studied in industry, but has only recently begun to gain attention in health care. But, understanding safety in complex socio-technical systems requires analysis at multiple levels, and each level is characteristically best approached by a different discipline.2 Because the relevant disciplines (such as sociology, anthropology, industrial psychology, macroergonomics, and organisational behaviour) are not easily accessible or well known, there is little opportunity for collaboration between them and the healthcare world. This led us to believe that an introduction to some of this work would be valuable to those concerned with improving the quality …
