Knowledge management goes beyond data and information capture in computerized health records and ordering systems; it seeks to leverage the experiences of all who interact in healthcare to enhance care delivery, teamwork, and organizational learning. Knowledge management - if envisioned thoughtfully - takes a systemic approach to implementation that includes the embodiment of a learning culture. Knowledge is then used to support that culture and the knowledge workers within it to encourage them to share what they know, thusly enabling their peers, their organizations and ultimately their patients to benefit from their experience to proactively dismantle hierarchy and encourage sharing about what works, and what doesn't to focus efforts on improvement. Knowledge Management in Healthcare draws on relevant business, clinical and health administration literature plus the analysis of discussions with a variety of clinical, administrative, leadership, patient and information experts. The result is a book that will inform thinking on knowledge access needs to mitigate potential failures, design lasting improvements and support the sharing of what is known to enable work towards attaining high reliability. It can be used as a general tool for leaders and individuals wishing to devise and implement a knowledge-sharing culture in their institution, design innovative activities supporting transparency and communication to strengthen existing programs intended to enhance knowledge sharing behaviours and contribute to high quality, safe care.

Knowledge management goes beyond data and information capture in computerized health records and ordering systems; it seeks to leverage the experiences of all who interact in healthcare to enhance care delivery, teamwork, and organizational learning. Knowledge management - if envisioned thoughtfully - takes a systemic approach to implementation that includes the embodiment of a learning culture. Knowledge is then used to support that culture and the knowledge workers within it to encourage them to share what they know, thusly enabling their peers, their organizations and ultimately their patients to benefit from their experience to proactively dismantle hierarchy and encourage sharing about what works, and what doesn't to focus efforts on improvement. Knowledge Management in Healthcare draws on relevant business, clinical and health administration literature plus the analysis of discussions with a variety of clinical, administrative, leadership, patient and information experts. The result is a book that will inform thinking on knowledge access needs to mitigate potential failures, design lasting improvements and support the sharing of what is known to enable work towards attaining high reliability. It can be used as a general tool for leaders and individuals wishing to devise and implement a knowledge-sharing culture in their institution, design innovative activities supporting transparency and communication to strengthen existing programs intended to enhance knowledge sharing behaviours and contribute to high quality, safe care.

Patient Safety: Perspectives on Evidence, Information and Knowledge Transfer provides background on the patient safety movement, systems safety, human error and other key philosophies that support change and innovation in the reduction of medical error. The book draws from the multidisciplinary areas within the acute care environment to provide models that support proactive changes in how team-based improvement efforts can affect the knowledge provision necessary to support safe care delivery. The publication discusses how the tenets of safety (described in the beginning of the book) have been or can be actively applied in the field. Tools and case studies, in addition to a brief discussion of core resources, are included.The key objectives of the book: * To inform healthcare leadership, clinical directors, risk managers and information professionals of the intersection between key patient safety philosophies and information, evidence and knowledge delivery mechanisms that support medical error reduction.* To raise awareness of the potential for systemic and individual information and knowledge sharing failures that are latent in the health care delivery process. * To explore the application of systemic improvement processes and tools to identify opportunities to reduce risk and potential for failure.* To provide evidence-based recommendations for health care information professionals and, with the knowledge they need to position themselves as partners with healthcare providers and leadership* To illustrate how expertise from information and knowledge professionals folds into elements and language of the safety sciences* To submit innovative activities and measures that illustrate a tangible contribution to patient safety from the knowledge transfer field

Patient Safety: Perspectives on Evidence, Information and Knowledge Transfer provides background on the patient safety movement, systems safety, human error and other key philosophies that support change and innovation in the reduction of medical error. The book draws from multidisciplinary areas within the acute care environment to share models that support the proactive changes necessary to provide safe care delivery. The publication discusses how the tenets of safety (described in the beginning of the book) can be actively applied in the field to make evidence, information and knowledge (EIK) sharing processes reliable, effective and safe. This is a wide-ranging and important book that is designed to raise awareness of the latent risks for patient safety that are present in the EIK identification, acquisition and distribution processes, structures, and systems of many healthcare institutions across the world. The expert contributors offer systemic, evidence-based improvement processes, assessment concepts and innovative activities to identify these risks to minimize their potential to adversely impact care. These ideas are presented to create opportunities for the field to design and use strategies that enable meaningful implementation and management of EIK. Their thoughts will enable healthcare staff to see EIK as a tangible element contributing toward sustainable patient safety improvements.