Everybody thinks that if everybody used common sense, the problems in health care would go away — but common sense isn’t that common, and health care is more complex than it seems. However, MJA Books’ latest publication provides a simple, clear guide to effective clinical risk management. So said Professor Bruce Barraclough, President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, at the official launch of Enhancing patient care: a practical guide to improving quality and safety in hospitals, authored by Alan Wolff and Sally Taylor.

The Hon Daniel Andrews, Victorian Minister for Health, officially launched the book on 31 August 2009 at the Victorian Department of Human Services.

The book summarises extensive, confusing literature and shows results that can reasonably be expected to be achieved. It provides a logical, simple and effective model, along with summaries and checklists to help put the model in place; and outlines what does and does not work in the real world.

Associate Professor Alan Wolff is Director of Medical Services for the Wimmera Health Care Group. He credits the success of the Group’s risk management program (on which the book is based) to five factors: the hospital’s intermediate size; its dedicated, long-serving staff; commitment from those at the top of the organisation; an innovative, flexible and cooperative hospital culture that does not “blame and shame”; and using simple improvement strategies.

“We open high-risk medical records on a daily basis, run checklist programs, and have the clinical risk management team located in the wards, not as a separate function”, he said.

Mr Andrews praised the book’s authors for taking their own successful project and providing it for others to use. “We can never eliminate errors, but we can have a shared commitment to learn from each error. This is a roadmap of a framework to always make sure health care is about care”, he said.

Enhancing patient care is published by MJA Books and is available from the MJA BookShop at <http://shop.mja.com.au>

Above Left to right: Sally Taylor, Associate Professor Alan Wolff, the Hon Daniel Andrews and Professor Bruce Barraclough. Below Left to right: Sally Taylor, Alan Wolff and Rivqa Berger.