Do you believe that the PICU’s design resided perhaps more in its leaders’ vision than in its structures and processes?

A recent report published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2001) found that medical errors kill as many as 100,000 people each year in American hospitals. The report argues that many medical errors stem from structural problems in health care organizations and the U.S. health care system, suggesting that increasing patient safety is (at least in part) an organizational design problem. To the surprise of interested health care managers and professionals, the literature on organizational safety and design offered little guidance on how to design a safe hospital and on designing organizations for hazardous environments more generally.