Background: Service accreditation is a structured process of recognising and promoting performance and adherence to standards. Typically, accreditation agencies either receive standards from an authorized body or develop new and upgrade existing standards through research and expert views. They...

Social sciences have given much to the science and practice of patient safety, but have more to offer. The purposes of this paper are to give a background to the studies presented in this special issue, and to encourage more social scientist to contribute to this important and rapidly growing...