Cultures for improving patient safety through learning: the role of teamwork.

The learning that can take place within organisations and the cultural change necessary to encourage it are discussed and teams and team leaders are focused on as potentially powerful forces for bringing about the management of patient safety and better quality of care.

Abstract

Improvements in patient safety result primarily from organisational and individual learning. This paper discusses the learning that can take place within organisations and the cultural change necessary to encourage it. It focuses on teams and team leaders as potentially powerful forces for bringing about the management of patient safety and better quality of care.