Williamson's ABNA revisited

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint article is to acquaint those engaged in health care quality improvement and patient safety programs with an effective, well‐documented but overlooked method. As described in a 1978 article, “Achievable Benefit Not Achieved” (ABNA) is a formal, efficient, transdisciplinary, evidence‐based method to identify and prioritize quality improvement project topics.Design/methodology/approach – Narrative review of personal experience and pertinent literature.Findings – While the ABNA method succeeds in serving its purpose when applied, and no evidence could be found to discredit it, ABNA appears to have been abandoned and forgotten for reasons of political expediency.Research limitations/implications – A strength and weakness of this research is its reliance upon personal narratives from the limited number of individuals still available who have first‐hand knowledge of past events. Convergence of those narratives along common themes, and their consistency with published recor...