Friday 23 May 2025 | 10:45-11:45

Format: Workshop

Stream: Safety

Content filters: Recommended for those new to quality improvement

The Safety II approach focuses on resilience, the ability to adapt and learning from best practices. Yet, how can we share these lessons with under-performing practices?

Informed by Safety II and realist-thinking, we conducted action research aiming to explore how this approach could foster improvement of hospital discharge processes.

We studied whether the working mechanisms that led to positive outcomes in well-performing departments can be effectively triggered in other, under-performing departments to achieve similar ‘good’ outcomes. We combined context factors and intended working mechanisms to help professionals redesign interventions that should lead to better performance in the discharge process.

We will share our findings and experiences with the attendees to offer practical strategies for implementing a Safety II approach during care improvement. Additionally, we will present our findings on the complex process of hospital discharge.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Appreciate complexity and the application of a Safety II approach in improving quality and safety of care


• Understand the opportunities and challenges of improving practice using a Safety II approach

Bas de Vries UMC Utrecht; Netherlands

Milou Steenbergen UMC Utrecht; Netherlands