Taking an organisational and cultural perspective on patient safety

Huw Davies, PhD

Professor of Health Care Policy & Management, University of St Andrews, and Director,

Knowledge Mobilisation and Capacity Building for the Service Delivery and Organisation R&D

Programme (SDO) of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Safe, high quality care is almost always secured (or lost) in an organisational setting. That is, ‘patient safety’ is about more than just individual professional behaviours: it is also about the organisational context and systems within which those individuals are embedded. One way of understanding these organisation contexts is to explore their cultural underpinnings – the values, beliefs and assumptions that drive repeated patterns of (safe and unsafe) behaviour. This seminar will explore the interlinked themes of organisations, systems and leadership in health care, aiming to expose the social and cultural dimensions of patient safety in the NHS.

Huw Davies holds a personal chair at the University of St Andrews, and directs the Social Dimensions of Health Institute (SDHI) at the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews, as well as working with the SDO Programme at the NIHR. His research interests are in public service delivery, especially health care, encompassing evidence-based policy and practice, performance measurement and management, accountability and governance. He also has a particular interest in the role of organisational culture and organisational learning in the delivery of safe, high quality services, and in developing greater understanding of the working relationships between service professionals and service managers. Huw has researched and published widely in each of these areas. His most recent book is Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public Services (Nutley, Walter and Davies;Policy press, 2007).

Date: Wednesday 15 October 2008

Time: 17.30

Place: King’s College Hospital, Boardroom,

Hambledon Wing, Denmark Hill,

London SE5 9RS

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