Box 2 Case study 1: distraction The operation was a laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed by two senior trainees. The anatomy was complex, and the decision was made to convert to an open procedure.

Correspondence to: Dr J Øvretveit, Professor of Health Policy and Management, The Nordic School of Public Health, Goteborg, Box 12133, S-40242 Sweden; jovret{at}aol.com. Quality improvement ...

BMJ Quality & Safety invites submissions to a topic collection on Patient Safety in Maternal and Child Health. Submissions must convey information that will help a wide range of international readers ...

Correspondence to Dr Jack Needleman, Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, 650 Charles E. Young Dr. S., Room 31-236B CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA; ...

Background Overuse of diagnostic testing substantially contributes to healthcare expenses and potentially exposes patients to unnecessary harm. Our objective was to systematically identify and examine ...

2 Wolfson Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK; National Institute for Clinical Excellence, MidCity Place, 71 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NA, UK 3 ...

3 Centre for Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK 4 ...

Introduction Monitoring hospital mortality rates is widely recommended. However, the number of preventable deaths remains uncertain with estimates in England ranging from 840 to 40 000 per year, these ...

Background There is growing international interest in involving patients in interventions to promote and support them in securing their own safety. This paper reports a systematic review of ...

Correspondence to Stephanie P Schwartz, Department of Pediatrics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Children's Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA; stephanie_schwartz{at}unc.edu Background ...

Objectives To determine the association of hospital nursing skill mix with patient mortality, patient ratings of their care and indicators of quality of care. Design Cross-sectional patient discharge ...

Introduction: Care home residents are at particular risk from medication errors, and our objective was to determine the prevalence and potential harm of prescribing, monitoring, dispensing and ...