Switzerland cheese model to support the patient safety’s culture in a Cuban hospital

Abstract

Some of the roles that people develop coincide in the other actors’ physical and mental space; these actions are in correspondence with different temporal spheres of life, as visualized in James Reason's Switzerland cheese model. This review purpose of systematizing the theoretical assumptions of the Switzerland cheese model for the patient safety culture support in hospitals. The model maintains that each care system has a series of walls or spaces that separate the elements of exposure to damage, located parallel to each other; however, they communicate through holes that can become sources of exposure. In the fair culture, the person must know what types of unsafe behavior are accepted and what are not. It is concluded that the patient safety culture must be understood as a non-punitive system that tries to become aware that things can go wrong, that it is capable of recognizing mistakes, learning from them and acting to improve, in this sense, the Switzerland cheese model supports these elements.

Keywords

• seguridad del paciente
• atención al paciente
• errores médicos