1st July 2015

Invert the paradigm

What would the world look like if we were able to balance our preoccupation with error with an equal and opposite focus on excellence and success?  I have a vision of a health service where all the elements of safety enquiry have an opposite ‘match’ from the realm of excellence. ‘Incident reporting’ is matched with ‘excellence reporting’; SIRIs have a ‘reverse’ counterpart focused on success; ‘never events’ are given as much consideration as  ‘always events’; ‘morbidity and mortality’ meetings are coupled with ‘wellbeing and survival’ meetings; and the ‘risk register’ is tempered by an innovative, forward-looking ‘opportunities register’.  In fact the whole paradigm of safety practice could be inverted. It only tales a slight change in mindset.

Safety itself would be thought of as just a part of the wider quality spectrum, and we could focus on finding learning points across the whole spectrum.

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