New Patient Safety Primer on High Reliability

New Patient Safety Primer on High Reliability

Organizations that operate in complex, high-hazard domains for extended periods without serious accidents or catastrophic failures are known as high reliability organizations. The concept of high reliability is attractive in health care due to the complexity of operations and the risk of significant and even potentially catastrophic consequences when failures occur. A new Patient Safety Primer on High Reliabilityposted on AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet) takes a deeper look into what makes a high reliability organization.

The primer provides a detailed overview of the different characteristics that make up high reliability organizations. For example, such organizations use systems thinking to evaluate and design for safety but are keenly aware that safety is an emergent, rather than a static, property. Another example is that high reliability organizations work to create an environment in which potential problems are anticipated, detected early, and virtually always responded to quickly enough to prevent catastrophic consequences.

Learn more in AHRQ's newest Patient Safety Primer on High Reliability.