Parallels between our response to COVID-19 and approach to patient safety

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the approach to patient safety share three important concepts: the chal-lenges of preventing rare events, use of rules, and tolerance for uncertainty. We discuss how each of these ideas can be utilised in perioperative safety to create a high-reliability system.

Automated summary

This article discusses the important concepts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and approaching patient safety, and suggests how to apply these concepts to improve perioperative safety.