How to Starve A Dog (read on: no dogs harmed)

“If you want to starve a dog, tell two people to feed it” – Dave Mayer

I’m an economist by training, so the tragedy of the commons is a familiar concept, yet somehow I’d never seen the (in retrospect very obvious) connection to teamwork — and by extension to patient care and safety.

The lesson is both simple and profound: accountability for critical tasks must be rigorously defined… and few tasks in health care are not critical.