Prof Dr Holger Pfaff

Going back to Parsons: The GI-factor in Patient Safety. Please register for this free event held at Macquarie University,  Seminar Room, Level 1, 75 Talavera Road, Macquarie University.

Location

Seminar Room, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Level 1, 75 Talavera Road.

View PDF of Prof Pfaff's presentation.

About the seminar

The importance of organisational factors in supporting or inhibiting improvement in patient safety has been established in research. I aim to distinguish specific, semi-specific, and unspecific factors that contribute to patient safety, with the primary goal of identifying unspecific factors. This research will be informed by social theories and frameworks which emphasize general features of system performance, such as Talcott Parsons´ systems theory. One central element in Parsons’ systems theory is the AGIL concept.

According to this framework, performance is dependent on adaption (A), goal attainment (G), integration (I) and latency (L). My main hypothesis is that out of these four unspecific factors the combination of goal attainment (G) and integration (I) - the GI factor- is especially important as a general requirement for patient safety, because this factor enables a collection of professionals to act effectively and efficiently as a goal-oriented social unit.

I will present results of a cross-sectional representative survey in Germany which supports this hypothesis and will also discuss the implications of the AGIL concept of Talcott Parsons for our focus on achieving progress in patient safety. The simultaneous improvement of social integration and goal orientation could be one strategy in laying the foundation for better health care quality management.

Speaker Profile

Dr Pfaff is also the Director of the Institute for Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science (IMVR) as well as the Director of the Centre for Health Services Research Cologne (ZVFK).

He is also the Chairman of the Board of experts of the German Innovation Fund (Appointed by the German Federal Minister of Health); and a spokesman of the association of professors teaching health services research at German universities and universities of applied sciences.

Dr Pfaff is also an elected member of the Review Board of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the subject area Public Health, Health Services Research, Social Medicine, and a member of the task force for palliative care of the Leopoldina National Academy of Science.

Need more information?

Contact AIHI on 02 9850 2400 or email aihi@mq.edu.au

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