title: What has change management in industry got to do with improving patient safety?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Healthcare is often in a constant state of change - for political, technological, patient related, and scientific reasons. Yet, for a business where change is the norm, too little time is spent thinking theoretically about how change occurs. One area where change is still needed is in patient safety.
  
  
  METHODS
  Presented is an analysis of the literature on change to suggest how this may inform patient safety.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No one change approach guarantees success in patient safety. Success very much depends on selecting the best fit change framework and adapting it to local context. Well regarded change models, like that of Kotter, are not well tested within a healthcare context. Those that are, such as Pettigrew, do not specifically address all the issues associated with patient safety. Kotter's phases of change may be applied in a healthcare context to enhance patient safety.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Kotter's model is well studied in non-healthcare contexts and has potential to be adapted for improving patient safety.
authors: Healthcare Innovation and Policy Unit, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, Abernethy Building, 2 Newark Street, London E1 2AT, UK. d.noble@qmul.ac.uk
authors: Douglas J
authors: DJ
authors: Noble
authors: Claire
authors: C
authors: Lemer
authors: Emma
authors: E
authors: Stanton
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000458:organization & administration; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom