Dick Davidson reminds us in the foreword to this important book that the public perception of the American hospital as a partner in its community, supporting “kindly Marcus Weldon MD” of 1970s television fame in the US, has changed. Although the nurses and doctors in the emergency room still seem heroic, the hospital seems more like a bureaucratic barrier getting in the way of “good people trying to help people”. Systems are now in place in the US and the UK for the detection and prevention of clinical error, but the detection and prevention of healthcare managers’ errors has not, until publication of this book, received the same attention.

The book aims to be a …