One Hospital’s Journey to Create a Culture of Safety

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports in 1999, To Err is Human – Building a Safer Health System and 2001, Crossing the Quality Chasm sought to transform the culture of American hospitals. The culture of blame needed to become a culture of safety if we were ever to reduce and prevent errors and create a system of care organized around patient not provider needs. Abington Memorial Hospital began its journey to create a culture of safety in December 1999 and today in 2010 we continue that journey. Much has been done and our organization has truly advanced in our transparency and focus on systems improvement. This paper describes our journey over the past decade and our strength of commitment to continuous improvement in search of perfect care for our patients.