This unique and engaging open access title provides a compelling and ground-breaking account of
the patient safety movement in the United States told from the perspective of one of its most
prominent leaders and arguably the movement's founder Lucian L. Leape MD. Covering the
growth of the field from the late 1980s to 2015 Dr. Leape details the developments actors
organizations research and policy-making activities that marked the evolution and major
advances of patient safety in this time span. In addition and perhaps most importantly this
book not only comprehensively details how and why human and systems errors too often occur in
the process of providing health care it also promotes an in-depth understanding of the
principles and practices of patient safety including how they were influenced by today's
modern safety sciences and systems theory and design. Indeed the book emphasizes how the
growing awareness of systems-design thinking and the self-education and commitment to improving
patient safety by not only Dr. Leape but a wide range of other clinicians and health
executives from both the private and public sectors all converged to drive forward the patient
safety movement in the US. Making Healthcare Safe is divided into four parts: I. In the
Beginning describes the research and theory that defined patient safety and the early
initiatives to enhance it. II. Institutional Responses tells the stories of the efforts of the
major organizations that began to apply the new concepts and make patient safety a reality.
Most of these stories have not been previously told so this account becomes their histories as
well. III. Getting to Work provides in-depth analyses of four key issues that cut across
disciplinary lines impacting patient safety which required special attention. IV. Creating a
Culture of Safety looks to the future marshalling the best thinking about what it will take to
achieve the safe care we all deserve. Captivatingly written with an insider's tone and a major
contribution to the clinical literature this title will be of immense value to health care
professionals to students in a range of academic disciplines to medical trainees to health
administrators to policymakers and even to lay readers with an interest in patient safety and
in the critical quest to create safe care.
