It aims to provide information on the general principles of quality, quality management and quality challenges in health care. The challenge of quality is founded on the basic principle of reducing the number of errors, which is still a great challenge for health care. Latest research demonstrates that almost every tenth patient suffers from preventable harm and adverse effects related to their care and that variation among health care providers is large and cannot be explained by patient characteristics. The Working Party started its work a few years ago. A survey was carried out which demonstrated that the concepts and principles relating to quality management in health care differ from one country and culture to another. The same was true for quality system audits and the principles for their credibility and authorisation (accreditation and certification). Since then many projects in health care have demonstrated that the general management and quality assurance principles apply well for health care. Projects like the 'Expert ' demonstrated that health care should learn from all the different quality management programs.

Abstract—Erroneous computer entry problems [here: ‘e-errors] in hospital labs threaten the patients’–health carers ’ relationship, undermining the health system credibility. Are e-errors random, and do lab professionals make them accidentally, or may they be traced through meaningful determinants? Theories on internal causality of mistakes compel to seek specific causal ascriptions of hospital lab e-errors instead of accepting some inescapability. Undeniably, ‘To Err is Human’. But in view of rapid global health organizational changes, e-errors are too expensive to lack in-depth considerations. Yet, that e-function might supposedly be entrenched in the health carers ’ job description remains under dispute – at least for Hellenic labs, where e-use falls behind generalized(able) appreciation and application. In this study: i) an empirical basis of a truly high annual cost of e-errors at about €498,000.00 per rural Hellenic hospital was established, hence interest in exploring the issue was sufficiently substantiated; ii) a sample of 270 lab-expert nurses, technicians and doctors were assessed on several personality, burnout and e-error measures, and iii) the hypothesis that the Hardiness vs Alienation personality construct disposition explains resistance vs proclivity to e-errors was tested and verified: Hardiness operates as a resilience source in the encounter of high pressures experienced in the hospital lab, whereas its ‘opposite’, i.e., Alienation, functions as a predictor, not only of making e-errors, but also of leading to burn-out. Implications for apt interventions are discussed. Keywords—Hospital lab, personality hardiness/alienation, e-errors ’ cost, burnout. E