Safety Culture through Business Management Strategies

Past accidents and incidents often had narrow impacts, but today’s failures of massive technology-based interdependent organizations in globalized economies can have devastating effects for the health and economies of entire cities, regions, and continents. Safety cultures have been successful in medicine, transportation, and other industries, so they may be effective for HCAI. The methods include: (1) Leadership commitment to safety, (2) hiring and training oriented to safety, (3) extensive reporting of failures and near misses, (4) internal review boards for problems and future plans, and (5) alignment with industry standards and accepted best practices. Safety cultures are never perfect, but they can improve existing processes and reduce costs, in part by preventing damage and injury.