TY - JOUR T1 - Working differently for better, safer care JF - Quality and Safety in Health Care JO - Qual Saf Health Care SP - i1 LP - i1 DO - 10.1136/qhc.12.suppl_1.i1 VL - 12 IS - suppl 1 AU - F Moss Y1 - 2003/12/01 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/12/suppl_1/i1.abstract N2 - Is there the capacity to change? Errors pervade all health systems. Health care in the United States may cost more, have more resources, and be more customer friendly than that delivered by the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS), but the epidemiology of errors is probably much the same.1,2 Even the French system, recently declared the “best” in the world,3 has during this summer’s soaring temperatures publicly failed many of its older population when they desperately needed help.4 Poor quality and unsafe care, we have come to understand, are caused by faulty systems and not by faulty individuals and no single group is to blame; “every system is perfectly designed to give precisely the results that it gets”. Even though collated figures about poor quality or unsafe care may be alarming—it is estimated that 5000 people may die each year as the result of hospital acquired infections and that for a further 15 000 deaths hospital acquired infections … ER -