Integration of patient safety systems in a suburban hospital

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 359
Author(s):  
Peter Stride ◽  
Mostafa Seleem ◽  
Noleen Nath ◽  
Ami Horne ◽  
Christina Kapitsalas

Public awareness of hospital misadventure is now common. In response, we describe our integrated hospital safety system, which is dependent on the linkage of multiple individual safety committees, and the presence on each committee of senior and junior multidisciplinary healthcare professionals to provide feedback to their peer groups on required improvements.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Wailling

<p>Patient safety has become an international healthcare priority over the past two decades. The prevailing approach to prevent harm in healthcare environments is the implementation of systems and structures that have made significant safety gains in high reliability organisations, such as aviation and nuclear power. However, similar safety improvements have not been realised in the healthcare environment. Studies suggest occupational culture is of importance, though our understanding of the relevance of safety subcultures is limited. This study explores how patient safety is described from the perspective of clinicians and organisational managers in an acute care hospital, using embedded case study design.  The case for this study was a New Zealand tertiary hospital. The emergency department and intensive care unit provided the settings for the embedded units. Three interviews with health care managers and six focus groups with nineteen doctors and nineteen nurses were undertaken. An interview guide, informed by the literature was used in data collection. Thematic data analysis was conducted within and across the case and embedded units. The theoretical concept of safety capability was developed from the data. Safety capability was defined as the ability to provide safe patient care and underpinned by the themes of resilient culture, and anticipation and vigilance.  A key finding of this research was that acute care environments have unique patient safety challenges, and these are influenced by complex factors. Patient safety was not assessed as being safe or unsafe, but rather perceived to exist across different levels of safety. Given this, healthcare professionals accept that some harm is inevitable in the healthcare setting. Doctors, nurses and managers understand and manage patient safety differently, and this affects how patient safety is addressed. This study identified anticipatory and vigilant systems are used to proactively manage risk by doctors and nurses, whereas incident reporting systems are used more by managers.    Given the need to keep patients safe and avoid harm, more proactive patient safety systems are needed to manage patient safety in hospitals; this will require a paradigm shift away from current reactive safety systems. Proactive systems must be underpinned by a resilient patient safety culture that focuses on the right building blocks to produce balance of resources and targets and develop collaboration in organisations. This will bring about flexibility and stability to meet the complex conditions presented by acute care environments.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Wailling

<p>Patient safety has become an international healthcare priority over the past two decades. The prevailing approach to prevent harm in healthcare environments is the implementation of systems and structures that have made significant safety gains in high reliability organisations, such as aviation and nuclear power. However, similar safety improvements have not been realised in the healthcare environment. Studies suggest occupational culture is of importance, though our understanding of the relevance of safety subcultures is limited. This study explores how patient safety is described from the perspective of clinicians and organisational managers in an acute care hospital, using embedded case study design.  The case for this study was a New Zealand tertiary hospital. The emergency department and intensive care unit provided the settings for the embedded units. Three interviews with health care managers and six focus groups with nineteen doctors and nineteen nurses were undertaken. An interview guide, informed by the literature was used in data collection. Thematic data analysis was conducted within and across the case and embedded units. The theoretical concept of safety capability was developed from the data. Safety capability was defined as the ability to provide safe patient care and underpinned by the themes of resilient culture, and anticipation and vigilance.  A key finding of this research was that acute care environments have unique patient safety challenges, and these are influenced by complex factors. Patient safety was not assessed as being safe or unsafe, but rather perceived to exist across different levels of safety. Given this, healthcare professionals accept that some harm is inevitable in the healthcare setting. Doctors, nurses and managers understand and manage patient safety differently, and this affects how patient safety is addressed. This study identified anticipatory and vigilant systems are used to proactively manage risk by doctors and nurses, whereas incident reporting systems are used more by managers.    Given the need to keep patients safe and avoid harm, more proactive patient safety systems are needed to manage patient safety in hospitals; this will require a paradigm shift away from current reactive safety systems. Proactive systems must be underpinned by a resilient patient safety culture that focuses on the right building blocks to produce balance of resources and targets and develop collaboration in organisations. This will bring about flexibility and stability to meet the complex conditions presented by acute care environments.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Naresh Serou ◽  
Andy K. Husband ◽  
Simon P. Forrest ◽  
Robert D. Slight ◽  
Sarah P. Slight

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e0144107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Marie Howell ◽  
Elaine M. Burns ◽  
George Bouras ◽  
Liam J. Donaldson ◽  
Thanos Athanasiou ◽  
...  

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1543
Author(s):  
Lina Heier ◽  
Donia Riouchi ◽  
Judith Hammerschmidt ◽  
Nikoloz Gambashidze ◽  
Andreas Kocks ◽  
...  

Healthcare professionals need specific safety performance skills in order to maintain and improve patient safety. The purpose of this study is to get a deeper understanding of healthcare professionals’ perspective in acute care on the topic of safety performance. This study was conducted using a qualitative approach. Healthcare professionals working in nursing were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Using content analyzing, categories were identified which present aspects of safety performance; subcategories were developed deductively. A total of 23 healthcare professionals were interviewed, of which 15 were registered nurses, five were nursing students and three were pedagogical personnel. Nine (39.1%) were <30 years old, 17 (73.9%) were female, and 9 (39.1%) had a leadership function. Results highlight the importance of safety performance as a construct of occupational health rather than of patient safety, and the role of the organization, as well as the self-responsibility of healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals should be more conscious of their role, have a deeper understanding of the interaction of individual, team, patient, organization and work environment factors.


Research has shown that a large portion of healthcare cost is due to medical errors. There are many factors that cause medical errors but one major factor is linked to healthcare professionals who are not adequately trained with the appropriate skills. Virtual environments and simulations are being used to help improve training in many different areas, including the healthcare profession. This paper explores the usage of Second Life in healthcare education and its ability to improve patient safety. The conclusion is that much progress and development still needs to be made before Second Life will make a significant impact on improved patient safety through healthcare education. There is a need to make the virtual environment more realistic to adequately train healthcare professionals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e001120
Author(s):  
Matthew Evison ◽  
Sarah Taylor ◽  
Seamus Grundy ◽  
Anna Perkins ◽  
Michael Peake

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on outcomes in lung cancer leading to later stage presentation, less curative treatment and higher mortality. This has amplified the existing problem of late-stage presentation in lung cancer and is a call to arms for a multifaceted strategy to address this, including public awareness campaigns to promote healthcare review in patients with persistent chest symptoms. We report the learning from patient and public insight work from across the North of England exploring the barriers to seeking healthcare review with persistent chest symptoms. Members of the public described how a lack of importance is placed on the common symptoms of lung cancer and a feeling of being unworthy of review by healthcare professionals. They would feel motivated to seek review by dispelling the nihilism of lung cancer and would be able to take action more easily by removing the logistical hassle in the process. We propose a four-pillar framework (validation–endorsement–motivation–action) for developing the content of any public awareness campaigns promoting early diagnosis of lung cancer based on the findings of this comprehensive insight work. All providers and commissioners must work together to overcome the perceived and real barriers to patients with persistent chest symptoms.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oddveig Reiersdal Aaberg ◽  
Marie Louise Hall-Lord ◽  
Sissel Iren Eikeland Husebø ◽  
Randi Ballangrud

Abstract Background: Patient safety in hospitals is being jeopardized, since too many patients experience adverse events. Most of these adverse events arise from human factors, such as inefficient teamwork and communication failures, and the incidence of adverse events is greatest in the surgical area. Previous research has shown the effect of team training on patient safety culture and on different areas of teamwork. Limited research has investigated teamwork in surgical wards. The aim of this study was to evaluate the professional and organizational outcomes of a team training intervention among healthcare professionals in a surgical ward after 6 and 12 months. Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety 2.0 was used as a conceptual framework for the study.Methods: This study had a pre-post design with measurements at baseline and after 6 months and 12 months of intervention. The intervention was conducted in a urology and gastrointestinal surgery ward in Norway, and the study site was selected based on convenience and the leaders’ willingness to participate in the project. Survey data from healthcare professionals were used to evaluate the intervention. The organizational outcomes were measured by the unit-based sections of the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture Questionnaire, and professional outcomes were measured by the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire and the Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions in Teams Questionnaire. A paired t-test, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test, a generalized linear mixed model and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data.Results: After six months, improvements were found in organizational outcomes in two patient safety dimensions. After 12 months, improvements were found in both organizational and professional outcomes, and these improvements occurred in three patient safety culture dimensions and in three teamwork dimensions. Furthermore, the results showed that one of the significant improved teamwork dimensions “Mutual Support” was associated with the Patient Safety Grade, after 12 months of intervention.Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the team training program had effect after 12 months of intervention. Future studies with larger sample sizes and stronger study designs are necessary to examine the causal effect of a team training intervention in this context.Trial registration number: ISRCTN13997367 (retrospectively registered)


Author(s):  
Jane Barnsteiner

Although a healthcare culture of safety has been a practice priority for many years, there has been less attention to incorporating culture of safety content into the education of healthcare professionals. Students need to become knowledgeable about system vulnerabilities and understand how knowledge, skills, and attitudes promoting utilization of safety science will lead to safer care for patients and families. Learning about both patient safety and system vulnerabilities needs to begin in pre-licensure programs and become an integral part of learning in all phases of nursing education and practice. In this article the author will begin by reviewing the essential elements of a culture of safety and considering what students need to know about a culture of safety. She will describe activities that promote safety, high reliability organizations, and external drivers of safety, and conclude by offering strategies for integrating a culture of safety into the curriculum.


Author(s):  
Graham Brack ◽  
Penny Franklin ◽  
Jill Caldwell

Most healthcare professionals take up their career because they want to make people better. It is rare—but not unknown—to find nurses deliberately harming patients. It is not always possible to cure a patient’s condition, and readers may be surprised to hear the view of Lord Justice Stuart-Smith that our ‘only duty as a matter of law is not to make the victim’s condition worse’ (Capital and Counties plc v Hampshire CC (1997) 2 All ER 865 at 883). Despite our best intentions, healthcare professionals do sometimes make the patient’s condition worse. There are too many instances of harm caused to patients. Not only does the patient suffer harm, staff will be upset (some may even give up their careers) and large compensation claims may be made which deplete NHS resources. According to the NHS Litigation Authority, in 2010–11 it received 8655 claims of clinical negligence and 4346 claims of non-clinical negligence against NHS bodies, and paid £863 million in connection with clinical negligence claims (NHSLA Annual Report and Accounts, 2011). To put that into perspective, NHS Warwickshire had a budget of £827m for that year, so this amount would fund a mediumsized PCT. For all these reasons, therefore, our first concern must be to do no harm to our patient. If we can improve their condition, so much the better, but at the very least we must leave them no worse off for having put themselves in our care. Patient safety must be everyone’s concern. It is monitored by the NHS Commissioning Board Special Health Authority. Until June 2012 there was a separate agency, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), which produced a report in 2009 entitled Safety in doses: improving the use of medicines in the NHS . There were 811 746 reports to the NPSA in 2007, of which 86 085 were related to medication. The figures for July 2010– June 2011 show an increase to 1.27 million incidents, of which 133 727 were related to medication.


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