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Showing results for tags 'System safety'.
Found 520 results
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Content ArticlePatient safety, staff moral and system performance are at the heart of healthcare delivery. Investigation of adverse outcomes is one strategy that enables organisations to learn and improve. Healthcare is now understood as a complex, possibly the most complex, socio-technological system. Despite this the use of a 20th century linear investigation model is still recommended for the investigation of adverse outcomes. In this review, Isherwood and Waterson use data gathered from the investigation of a real life healthcare near incident and apply three different methodologies to the analysis of this data. They compare both the methodologies themselves and the outputs generated. This illustrates how different methodologies generate different system level recommendations. The authors conclude that system based models generate the strongest barriers to improve future performance. Healthcare providers and their regulatory bodies need to embrace system based methodologies if they are to effectively learn from, and reduce future, adverse outcomes.
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Content ArticleStep Change in Safety is a member-led organisation which is working to make the UKCS the safest oil and gas province in the world in which to work. The safety of the workforce always comes first. Through collaboration, sharing knowledge and adopting best practices, workforce safety in the UKCS can be continually improved and Step Change in Safety are at the forefront in delivering that. Take a look at Step Change in Safety's resources and see how they could apply to healthcare.
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Content ArticleHuman factors and ergonomics (HF/E) is concerned with the design of work and work systems. There is an increasing appreciation of the value that HF/E can bring to enhancing the quality and safety of care, but the professionalisation of HF/E in healthcare is still in its infancy. In this paper, Sujan et al. set out a vision for HF/E in healthcare based on the work of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF), which is the professional body for HF/E in the UK. The authors consider the contribution of HF/E in design, in digital transformation, in organisational learning and during COVID-19.
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Content Article
Responding to patient alarms in single patient rooms
katepym posted an article in Equipment and facilities
This survey for health and care staff looks at how quickly staff are aware of alarms emitted by bedside monitoring equipment in single patient rooms, and their ability to respond. Doors to single patient rooms are often kept shut for long periods of time for reasons of privacy, dignity and (at the moment especially) infection control. With the UK Government targeting a growth in the proportion of NHS hospital rooms which have a single bed, is this a risk to the health and wellbeing of patients? This is not a specific issue where data is collected, so an online survey has been created to gather feedback and opinions. -
Content ArticleIn this opinion piece for the BMJ, David Oliver, a consultant in geriatrics and acute general medicine, draws lessons from the Grenfell Tower disaster and subsequent public inquiry. 72 people lost their lives in the fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower in 2017. Evidence to the public inquiry has shown that several residents had raised concerns about the building's safety over many years, and that architects, building contractors, and providers and fitters of cladding material had also expressed concerns about the safety of the exterior cladding used on Grenfell Tower. David Oliver highlights that had these concerns been listened to and acted on, the disaster could have been avoided and many lives saved. He draws parallels with concerns being raised by patients about the safety of the healthcare system and highlights the role of staff in repeatedly raising and keeping a record of concerns. He states that NHS leaders must create a culture where no one is afraid to speak out and act to mitigate safety issues. Leaders must expect to be held accountable for their response - or lack of response - to safety issues raised.
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Content Article
In this opinion piece, Kath Sansom, founder of the Sling the Mesh campaign, highlights the many issues that women face when trying to get pelvic mesh slings surgically removed. She calls for the NHS to give patients a voice and to develop a robust and consistent plan to tackle the issues faced by patients harmed by surgical mesh. -
Content ArticleThis study in The British Journal of General Practice aimed to quantify the time GPs spend on different activities during clinical sessions, to identify the number of operational failures they encounter and to define the nature of operational failures and their impact for GPs.
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Content ArticleHealthcare can be risky. Adverse events carry a high cost – both human and financial – for health systems around the world. So in an effort to improve safety, many health systems have looked to learn from high-risk industries. The aviation and nuclear industries, for example, have excellent safety records despite operating in hazardous conditions. And increasingly, the tools and procedures these industries use to identify hazards are being adopted in healthcare. One prominent example involves the Hierarchy of Risk Controls (HoC) approach, which works by ranking the methods of controlling risks based on their expected effectiveness. According to HoC, the risks at the top are presumed to be more effective than those at the bottom. The ones at the top typically rely less on human behaviour: for example, a new piece of technology is considered to be a stronger risk control than training staff. This article looks more deeply at the (HoC) approach to explore its usefulness and effectiveness in healthcare. To investigate this issue, a team of social scientists examined the risk controls introduced by four hospital teams in England and Scotland after they had identified hazards in their systems.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) systemwide plan to improve patient care. The RCEM CARES campaign addresses pressing issues facing emergency departments (EDs) so that staff can deliver safe and timely care for patients. The campaign focuses on five key areas: Crowding, Access, Retention, Experience, and Safety.
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Content ArticleTargeting the analysis of socio-technical complexity, the System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) was developed to engineer safer systems. Since its inception in the early 2000s, STAMP and its associated techniques, namely the System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and the Causal Analysis based on System Theory (CAST), have attracted increasing interest as suitable approaches for safety studies. Nonetheless, a literature review on their applications is lacking. This paper from Patriarca et al. fills this gap via a scoping literature survey on contributions indexed in academic journals and conference proceedings.
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Content ArticleThis scoping paper explores the question ‘what would it take to build a culture of learning at scale?’. It focuses on systems-wide learning that can help to inform systems change efforts in complex contexts. To answer this question, literature was reviewed from across diverse disciplines and the realms of education, innovation systems, systems thinking and knowledge management. This inquiry was also supported by in-depth interviews with numerous specialists from the for-purpose sector and the examination of several case studies of learning across systems. The goal was to derive common patterns to inform a ‘learning for systems change’ framework. In this paper, a ‘learning networks’ approach is proposed, one that draws upon individual, group and systems-wide learning to build capacity and resilience for systems change in uncertain environments. This fills a gap in the literature where the focus is largely on learning within organisations. Instead, the focus here is on what is required to support learning to occur across scales and boundaries - from the individual to system-wide. A simple meta-framework for developing learning networks is proposed that includes high level guidance on the enabling conditions - the mindsets, relationships, processes and structures - that would enable learning networks to flourish.
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Content Article
Patient Safety Syllabus training
Mark Hughes posted an article in Specialist patient safety training
The National patient safety syllabus outlines a new approach to patient safety, emphasising a proactive approach to identifying risks to safe care while also including systems thinking and human factors and applies to all NHS employees. This page provides access to learning materials (via the E-Learning for Health platform) for staff relating to Level one – Essentials for patient safety and Level two – Access to practice of the training associated with this. -
News Article
NHSE tells trusts to ‘immediately stop all ambulance handover delays’
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
· Trusts told to identify actions to “immediately stop all delays” · Letter calls for issue to be discussed at every board meeting · It follows concern over harm to patients from delays Trusts and integrated care systems are being told by NHS England and Improvement to take urgent action to ”immediately stop all delays” to ambulance handovers, which will require “difficult choices”. A letter yesterday from NHS England’s medical director, director for emergency and elective care, and its regional directors was sent to all local chief executives and chairs yesterday. It also says they should discuss the issue of ambulance handovers at every board meeting they hold, warns that “corridor care” is “unacceptable as a solution”, and says ambulances should not be used as “additional ED cubicles”. The move comes amid signs of large numbers of very long handover delays, and concern about the risk to patients from this and the knock-on damage to ambulance response times. Read the full article here (paywalled) Original source: Health Service Journal -
Content ArticleOn 11 June 2019 an investigation into the death of Brooke Martin aged 19 started. Brooke was a patient at Isla House, Chadwick Lodge, Milton Keynes and was detained under the Mental Health Act. She had been diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brooke was found hanging in her room and was taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital where she died on 11 June 2019.
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Content Article
Ineffective medical device recalls are a patient safety scandal
Kath Sansom posted an article in Women's health
A medical device is any piece of equipment, material or apparatus used to diagnose or treat a medical condition. When a medical device is recalled because of safety concerns, it can affect a large number of patients, often on a global scale. However, manufacturers and regulators of these devices don’t often have effective ways to ensure patients know about safety concerns, understand the risks or know what to do if their medical device is recalled. This blog by Kath Samson, founder of the Sling the Mesh campaign, looks at some of the issues around medical device recalls. She suggests ways that device manufacturers and regulators can improve their communication with patients and healthcare staff when a medical device is recalled.- Posted
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Content Article
HSE: Health and safety management systems
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Organisational
A formal management system or framework can help you manage health and safety. The Health and Safety Executive (HEE) highlights standards, documentation and useful resources. -
Content ArticleAimed at those who are responsible for the overall performance of organisations, divisions or departments in diverse industries such as healthcare, aviation, construction, oil and gas, nuclear, railways and defence, this book introduces a new safety paradigm in comprehensible and practical terms. It aims at improving safety and overall organisational performance through a doable, different and directed approach using multiple small steps. This book will help readers in understanding how to integrate the natural variability of human performance – and our ability to compensate for unpredictability elsewhere – into organisational systems, thereby ensuring successful outcomes. It covers important topics, including complexity, effective workplace innovations, micro-experiments, maintaining alignment between rules and reality, maximising learning and restoring relations. It includes practical examples and supporting material referenced in the expansive notes section. This book: Presents multiple small steps that collectively facilitate the improvement of safety. Discusses improving safety in routine work;, not triggered by accidents. Covers a chapter on what to do when things go wrong. Discusses these methods with the help of numerous vignettes. Has a separate section on each industry. Safety professionals, academicians, researchers and students (undergraduate and graduate) in health and safety, human factors, ergonomics, occupational health and safety will also appreciate the brevity and clarity of this work in conveying the latest scientific insights on safety.
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Content ArticleSerious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) introduced a new Human Factors Investigation Tool (HFIT) in 2021. The tool can be used to investigate and capture systemic as well as individual factors where there has been an error. This case study uses the updated Human Factors Investigation Tool and Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) framework to work through an ABO incompatible red cell transfusion case reported to SHOT.
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Content ArticleThere is widespread consensus that learning is crucial for the performance of health systems and the achievement of broader health goals. However, this consensus is not matched by shared knowledge and understanding of how health systems learn, or of how to improve health systems learning across different contexts. The report is aimed at an audience of diverse stakeholders invested in strengthening health systems, and aims to achieve two things. First, to move towards a shared language and frameworks to discuss the problems and solutions of learning, as they apply to health systems. Second, the report seeks to advance action on learning – by providing stakeholders with clarity on steps that they can undertake to advance learning for health systems. This report is intended to be a starting point for gaining a shared understanding of learning health systems as an actionable agenda. The hope is that it will spur useful conversations and fuel the movement for better informed, more analytical and more self-reliant health systems – especially in the context of low- and middle-income countries.
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Content Article
This competency framework has been developed and updated to support prescribers in expanding their knowledge, skills, motives and personal traits, to continually improve their performance, and work safely and effectively. -
Content ArticleThe Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has warned that measures to reduce pressure on maternity services are putting safety at risk. In a letter to Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer at NHS England, the RCM acknowledges the effectiveness of some measures to relieve pressure on staff and services, but expresses concern at others.
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Content Article
In this blog, Farrah Pradhan, Project Manager for Clinical Quality, Education and Projects at RCOG, describes her work with maternity professionals, namely obstetricians, and through undertaking an MSc in Patient safety. Farrah’s focus was on their 'work as done' to see if the concepts of Safety-II (capability mindfulness and resilience engineering) helped them to work more safely. -
Content Article
Safer Maternity Care Progress Report 2021
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
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This report provides an update on overall progress in meeting the National Maternity Safety Ambition and implementing the range of initiatives designed to improve outcomes for mothers and babies since 2015. Content includes: Progress on National Ambition outcomes What has been achieved? Changing culture Specific safety initiatives System enablers Next steps. -
Content ArticleHelen McKenna talks with Dr Bola Owolabi, Director of Health Inequalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, about the NHS's spheres of influence, the power of gathering around a common cause, and whether the experience of the pandemic will lead to a step change in tackling health inequalities.
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Content ArticleThis webinar from the Faculty of Clinical Informatics looks at the problems individual clinicians have with reporting and fixing issues with clinical systems across the NHS. Panel members also discuss ideas for how processes can be improved. The panel was made up of: Dr Marcus Baw, GP and Emergency Physician, Chair of the RCGP Health Informatics Group, FCI Fellow and open source developer Dr Ian Thompson, Clinical Lead (Primary Care) in Digital Health and Care at The Scottish Government Dr Lesley Kay, Consultant Rheumatologist at Newcastle Hospitals and Deputy Medical Director at the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch Emma Melhuish, Principal Informatics Specialist at NHS Digital Neil Watson, Director of Pharmacy, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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