A fragmented patient safety concept: the structure and culture of safety management in health care

The uniform and visible commitment to safety management is a cultural and structural change that health care organizations have not typically attempted. Committee structures are just one example of how culture drives structure in managing health care safety. The question is: "Are we interested in making nonpatient safety programs as well understood and as culturally significant as patient safety programs?" Models exist to institutionalize safety management in health care. We need only look to the JCAHO or OSHA and other high-hazard industry models for examples of safety management. Change requires a focus on safety, not occupational safety or patient safety, but just safety. In health care, safety would be a key characteristic of organizational culture. The organizational expectation is then that all employees will work safely and practice safety. Employees will apply safe practices when handling chemicals, in lifting, and when giving medications. Only when safety imbues the work and decisions of each employee in this way will the highest level of safety be attained.