Improving Patient Safety in Radiology

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Both horizontally oriented interventions (aimed at improving culture and environment in an effort to reduce the number of human errors potentially leading to patient harm) and vertically oriented (aimed at a specific area of errors) are needed to create a comprehensive safety program in radiology. Our objective is to describe horizontal interventions introduced to improve safety in radiology. CONCLUSION: Horizontal interventions--such as operational rounds with radiology leadership, safety coach programs, error prevention training, and a lessons-learned communication program--can successfully improve the safety culture and performance in radiology.