Swarm: a quick and efficient response to patient safety incidents

This article has been double-blind peer reviewed

In this article…

• Investigating and learning from patient safety incidents

• How Swarm works in healthcare settings

• Staff feedback on Swarm at North Bristol Trust

Abstract

Two years ago, a patient safety incident at North Bristol Trust led to the introduction of Swarm - a step change in how the trust responds to safety incidents. Swarm is a form of safety incident huddle that takes place as close as possible in time and place to the incident, allows blame-free investigation and leads to prompt action. This article describes how Swarm works, its advantages over root cause analysis, and how it is being embedded in the safety culture of North Bristol Trust.