Providing end of life care that is dignified and compassionate is a vital part of delivering high quality care in hospitals. Dr. Mary Miller and colleagues at the OUH have significantly improved care using the ‘human, learning, systems’ approach.
The ‘human, learning, systems’ (HLS) approach described by Lowe and Plimmer recognises that people, issues and systems are complex.1,2 Lowe and Plimmer present a model, a paradigm shift, which calls for faith and trust that people know what to do and want to do their job and encourages systems to embrace complexity in order to create positive social outcomes for our community. The commissioning and provision of healthcare are complex tasks. Embracing the principles of HLS in the National Health Service (NHS) may improve the delivery of healthcare and liberate providers and commissioners. This article describes an example of an HLS approach in the NHS and identifies the positive outcomes.
The HLS approach underpinned the ‘Improving Care of the Dying’ quality improvement project in our large, tertiary referral, acute, teaching hospital. The project supported and enabled staff in their own department to identify the changes they wanted to make and to make them. Incrementally, across the hospital, the quality of care provided to dying patients and those important to the patient improved.
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