Large scale organisational intervention to improve patient safety in four UK hospitals: mixed method evaluation

• Published in: BMJ 2011-02, Vol.342 (7793), p.369-369
• Main Authors: Benning, Amirta, Ghaleb, Maisoon, Suokas, Anu, Dixon-Woods, Mary, Dawson, Jeremy, Barber, Nick, Franklin, Bryony Dean, Girling, Alan, Hemming, Karla, Carmalt, Martin, Rudge, Gavin, Naicker, Thirumalai, Nwulu, Ugochi, Choudhury, Sopna, Lilford, Richard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Campaigns; Climate effects; Clinical Competence - standards; Collaboration; Epidemiologic Studies; Health care; Health care industry; Hospital administration; Hospital buildings; Hospital Mortality; Hospital units; Hospitals; Hospitals, Public - standards; Hospitals, Rural - standards; Hospitals, Urban - standards; Human error; Humans; Infections; Intensive care; Intervention; Job Satisfaction; Lifesaving; Medical Error/ Patient Safety; Medical errors; Medical Errors - statistics & numerical data; Medical History Taking - standards; Medical practices; Medical Staff, Hospital - standards; Medicines Regulation; Mixed methods research; Mortality; Older adults; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Patient care; Patient safety; Patient Satisfaction; Patients; Pneumonia (Respiratory Medicine); Psychoeducational intervention; Qualitative research; Quality; Quality management; Quality of care; Quality of Health Care; Respiration; Respiratory diseases; Safety Management; Safety measures; Savings; Scholarly publishing; State Medicine - standards; Steroid hormones; Teaching hospitals; United Kingdom; Ventilators
• ISSN: 0959-8138; 0959-8146; 0959-535X; 1468-5833; 1756-1833
• DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d195

Objectives To conduct an independent evaluation of the first phase of the Health Foundation’s Safer Patients Initiative (SPI), and to identify the net additional effect of SPI and any differences in changes in participating and non-participating NHS hospitals.Design Mixed method evaluation involving five substudies, before and after design.Setting NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom.Participants Four hospitals (one in each country in the UK) participating in the first phase of the SPI (SPI1); 18 control hospitals.Intervention The SPI1 was a compound (multi-component) organisational intervention delivered over 18 months that focused on improving the reliability of specific frontline care processes in designated clinical specialties and promoting organisational and cultural change.Results Senior staff members were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about SPI1. There was a small (0.08 points on a 5 point scale) but significant (P