Looking back on the history of patient safety: an opportunity to reflect and ponder future challenges (19 January 2022)

Summary

This article in BMJ Quality and Safety looks back at how the patient safety movement has developed over the last two decades. It argues that although the aim of the movement is to change systems, in reality this has not happened on a wide scale. The authors suggest that if we are to make quantitative improvements to patient safety, the next stage of the patient safety movement needs to prioritise substantive, system-wide change.