Human Fallibility and Safety in Complex Healthcare Systems: Learning from Other Industries

Summary

The article discusses how complex systems, particularly in healthcare and radiology management, are inherently unsafe due to human fallibility. It argues that humans cannot be designed out of these systems, but rather it is the people and teams within them that enable high standards of safety and performance. The piece draws on Dekker's work (2002) and explores lessons that healthcare can learn from other high-risk industries to improve patient safety and system reliability.