The role of the law in communicating patient safety

This chapter considers the role of the law in communicating patient safety. Downie and colleagues' (2006) 'preventing, knowing and responding' theoretical framework is adopted to classify the different elements of patient safety law. Rather than setting out all relevant patient safety laws in detail, this chapter highlights key legal strategies which are employed to prevent the occurrence of a patient safety incident ('preventing'); support the discovery and open discussion of patient safety incidents when they do occur ('knowing'); and guide responses after they occur ('responding') (Downie et al., 2006).