Based in London, England, The Health Foundation is an independent charity that aims to improve health and the quality of health care for the people of the United Kingdom. The Foundation selected the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to design, promote and implement the Safer Patients Initiative, one of the Foundation’s quality and performance improvement programmes.

Following a highly competitive UK-wide selection process, 20 hospitals representing the four countries of the UK have joined The Health Foundation’s prestigious Safer Patients Initiative. The hospitals have worked in pairs on the safety improvement work with technical assistance from IHI. The teams have built upon the impressive progress made by the four hospitals already involved in the initiative, learning from each other's successes and challenges.

Sustaining and spreading the achievements of the Safer Patients Initiative has been a goal for the programme from its inception and we believe that the greatest opportunities now lie in moving to an approach that enables organisational leaders and front-line teams to address their own safety priorities through the development of an active, managed network.