ECRI acquires The Just Culture Company to transform healthcare patient and workforce safety

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Dec. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ECRI, a global nonprofit organization improving the quality and safety of healthcare, announced today it acquired The Just Culture Company, which specializes in transforming workforce culture in high-risk industries.

The Just Culture Company assists organizations in deploying a balanced system of accountability between the organization and employee that fosters a fair, learning culture – referred to as a "just culture" – by implementing its proprietary algorithm through advisory services, educational programs and coaching.

"Just culture" is an essential component of ECRI's Total System Safety (TSS) approach to drive efficiencies, improve healthcare and reduce preventable patient harm by designing systems for impact and sustainability. Through the acquisition of The Just Culture Company, ECRI now operates a leading cultural transformation organization.

"Alarming rates of preventable harm are inflicted on patients every day. By offering Just Culture programs throughout ECRI's global network, we can prevent harm before it happens," said Marcus Schabacker, PhD, president and CEO of ECRI. "To create lasting change and improve patient and workforce safety, we must shift from evaluating accidents and errors after they've taken place, to designing systems and cultures that prevent harm from happening in the first place."

The Just Culture Company has partnered with healthcare providers, health departments and insurers to assess and improve workforce culture, from C-Suite to frontline staff, through a holistic systems-based approach.

"Our just culture model is founded on the principle that workforce learning, holistic system design, mentoring, and coaching are stronger interventions than the 'shame and blame' culture that's so prolific in healthcare," said David Marx, CEO of The Just Culture Company. "Errors must be recognized and addressed in a way that become learning opportunities for all the people in the system."

The significance of just culture in the healthcare workforce was highlighted in the CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure taking effect in 2025. The measure requires hospitals to demonstrate they have established a culture and structure that prioritizes patient safety, specifically referencing just culture in the domain about strategic planning and organizational policy.

"Too many healthcare staff, through no fault of their own, are operating in poorly designed systems, with hierarchical cultures that prevent staff from speaking up about safety hazards and 'near misses,'" explained Schabacker. "Not only does this lead to more incidents of patient harm, but it fuels high rates of burnout and stress among overworked healthcare personnel. We can't train our way to improved safety and quality. Only through a cultural transformation can we adopt a completely new way of supporting and collaborating with our healthcare workforce."

According to Schabacker, joining forces with The Just Culture Company is a milestone that reflects ECRI's strategy to identify and mitigate the root causes of harm and inefficiency in healthcare.

"As the industry has evolved, we have continued to launch data-informed, evidence-based solutions that address the systemic failures that are causing the most harm – areas where healthcare leaders have struggled to create lasting change despite valiant efforts," said Schabacker. "We are thrilled to add this on-demand solution and strong brand to ECRI's portfolio to accelerate our mission to advance effective, evidence-based healthcare globally."

This latest acquisition comes four years after ECRI's move to acquire the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) to help healthcare partners tackle one of the leading causes of preventable harm: medication errors.

To learn more, visit https://home.ecri.org/just-culture-company.

MEDIA CONTACT

Yvonne Rhodes, ECRI Associate Director of Strategic Communications, at YRhodes@ECRI.org.

ABOUT ECRI

ECRI is an independent, nonprofit organization improving the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of care across all healthcare settings. With a focus on technology evaluation and safety, ECRI is trusted by healthcare leaders and agencies worldwide. ECRI is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO is a federally certified Patient Safety Organization as designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2020, ECRI acquired ISMP to create one of the largest healthcare quality and safety institutions in the world. Visit www.ecri.org.

ABOUT THE JUST CULTURE COMPANY

The Just Culture Company helps organizations across industries create accountable, safe, supportive cultures. For 30 years, they have helped transform work systems that erroneously demand perfection from fallible human beings. CEO and founder David Marx worked as an engineer and human factors leader in the aviation industry, where he established an award-winning error investigation process in use by airlines around the world to this day. He led a research and consulting practice focused on the management of human error through the integration of systems engineering, human factors and the law. He advised the Federal Aviation Administration's Human Factors Research Program and the NASA Space Shuttle Program. He developed novel risk modeling methods that have been used to model risk in high-consequence industries worldwide. The Just Culture Company has helped healthcare institutions and regulatory agencies reduce the risk of iatrogenic patient harm. In the area of system design, David Marx's novel error investigation process has been used to model and mitigate risks from wrong site surgery to medication errors.

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SOURCE ECRI