SEIPS: Everything you need to know to get you started

Summary

This quick reference guide introduces the SEIPS (Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety) model, a practical framework for understanding how work systems influence patient safety outcomes. Designed for anyone new to systems thinking in healthcare, it covers the core components of the model: the work system elements (tools and technology, tasks, people, organisation and environment) and how these interact to shape processes and outcomes. Concise and accessible, it gives practitioners, safety lead, and improvement teams a clear starting point for applying SEIPS in their own context, whether reviewing an incident, mapping a care process, or designing safer systems.

Content

Produced by Morgan Human Systems, this quick reference guide offers a concise introduction to the SEIPS (Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety) model. SEIPS is a human factors framework used in healthcare to analyse how work system components, including people, tasks, tools, environment and organisation, interact to influence care processes and outcomes. As demand for SEIPS grows across health and care settings, the guide was produced to give practitioners a practical, accessible starting point to support their use of the model in incident review, process improvement, and safer system design.

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