Healthcare professionals are involved in development work that is always present in healthcare organisations. They are required to participate when quality methods such as Lean and Six Sigma are introduced in hospitals’ clinical practises.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how development work in terms of providing reliable care are perceived by nurses and physicians when quality methods are implemented in clinical practises.

The data consist from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seventeen nurses and ten physicians at two hospitals in western Sweden. A qualitative research method was used. The interviews were analysed in the search for underlying themes that reflect their perception and evaluation of the quality methods and their possibility to increase the reliability in healthcare.

The confidence between nurses and physicians was essential for creating and maintaining supportive relationships and reliable systems. Reliable care seemed to be more of the result of the dedication and professionalism than the result of the applied quality methods. Reliability in healthcare seemed to flow from work attitudes, commitment and continuous development work as much as from quality methods. In general, the professionals more emphasized the importance of teamwork and cooperation as ways to develop healthcare.