More beds and more nurses have been promised for the region's largest hospital.
The traditional role of the matron will also return to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital as bosses launch a new strategy vowing to "get the basic things right".
The news comes after a number of alleged drug blunders and serious patient safety incidents dubbed "never events" came to light.
The new strategy will include five core clinical leaders feeding information straight from wards to the boardroom as part of an "executive team".
Greg Dix, director of nursing, announced that matrons in their traditional form were to make a return to the wards.
"We are redefining the matron role and putting the matrons back on the ward where they should be," he said. "And another big thing will be the reintroduction of intentional care rounds on the wards where all patients will be visited every one to two hours."
Hospital chiefs are awaiting the results of an investigation by the Care Quality Commission, carried out in April. The healthcare watchdog sent inspectors to the city after seven never-events – serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents – were recorded in the last financial year.
Ann James, chief executive of Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust which runs Derriford Hospital, said the trust "acknowledges that we don't always get it right for every patient every time, but we are committed to being open and transparent".
Ms James added: "As a hospital we have a new team in place, a new board, and as part of that team we now have practising clinicians throughout the organisation to work with management to continuously improve the services and the quality of care in this hospital.
"Openness, transparency and a commitment to improve is fundamental to how we're going to be working and that safe, high quality care is the bedrock of what we do today and in the future.
"And within that we do acknowledge that we don't get it right every time and there is collective commitment that we are absolutely committed to hearing that, understanding it and acting on it.
"I think the important thing for me is making sure that the public have a bit more of an understanding that this isn't just being managerially led – this is management and clinicians leading it, good quality management and a clear accountability for improvement."
She added: "It's building on what we already do and a lot of that is very, very good. What we're doing though is taking that on to the next level and I think what we haven't done as systematically as we are doing now, is putting clinicians who deliver services to our patients as part of that delivery, so they are absolutely working with us to drive the organisation for improvement."