Patient safety doesn’t improve through punishment, vigilance posters, or telling people to “be more careful.” It improves when leaders design safer systems, support speaking up, and focus on learning instead of blame. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on patient safety through a Lean lens—exploring medical errors, near misses, psychological safety, leadership behaviors, and how healthcare organizations can reduce harm by fixing systems rather than blaming individuals.
Recently, I wrote about an on-site event that I helped the Iowa Lean Consortium and Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC) organize… here is my first post about the morning of that event, if you missed it: Celebrating & Sharing Continuous Improvement…
I recently saw this article, as published in a printed magazine that arrived in the mail via the UNT Health Science Center. The bold headline in the magazine was: FIRST, DO NO HARM I appreciate it when a healthcare organization…
This article caught my eye recently:
DMC dirty instruments escaped '15 probe, records show
(via The Detroit News)
This article caught my eye recently:
Skip the Fancy Towels, and Hire More Nurses
(via the NY Times)
A number of you emailed me about this report in the Detroit News. I grew up in Detroit and my first job was as a carrier for the News. Loved ones have received care from the Detroit Medical Center system……
The cancelation of a meaningless NFL exhibition pre-season game is probably one of the least important problems in the world. But, it happened recently and the “comedy errors” is interesting to think about. You might notice the headline of my…
Continuing my series of blog posts about my July trip to China, today’s post is about the second city I visited: Shanghai. This post has some photos and descriptions of the high-speed train trip and other travel-related details. You can…
I want to preface this post by saying it’s mostly about questions, not answers. I’ve had many readers and acquaintances ask me about what’s been going on at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. The short answer is: “I don’t…
I’m going to be away from the blog (and Twitter) through July 13, but here are some blog posts from Julys of years past. 2015: See How a British Psychiatrist is Using LEGO Videos to Explain Lean Healthcare 2014: Weird Al’s Hilarious…
Recently, Chris Jerry, a friend in the patient safety movement (pictured, at left) told me that he was going to be interviewed on a Fox News Channel program about medical errors. You can read or listen (here and here) to my…
Mark’s Note: This is another guest post by Drew Locher (check out past posts and my podcast with him). There’s been a lot in the news about “medical error” arguably being the 3rd leading cause of death in the United…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is written by Laura Townsend, the founder of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. I learned about the foundation when I moved to San Antonio four years ago and am honored to serve on their…
