Transforming the quality of patient care
19 October 2010
A network designed to improve patient safety in health organisations is to be shaped and evaluated by a team of researchers from the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies and York Health Economics Consortium.
The Safer Patients Network was launched in 2009 by The Health Foundation, an independent charitable group working towards improving the quality and safety of healthcare across the UK.
Every year in the UK, around 16 million people are admitted to hospital. Estimates suggest that one in ten of those patients experience an incident that puts them at risk of harm, and even death.
The network links healthcare organisations that were part of an earlier programme – the Safer Patient Initiative – and aims to create a self-sustaining member-driven community with participants sharing best practice and developing new approaches to patient safety. It is envisaged that the network will enable the community to test, develop and export ways to make healthcare safer for patients by continuing to build improvement skills in their systems of care.
Now, a team led by Dr Annette Lankshear from the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Karin Lowson of the York Health Economics Consortium, is assessing the extent to which the network is achieving its goal. Dr Lankshear said: “This research seeks to describe and document the story of the Safer Patient’s Network, to observe and reflect on its emergent nature and properties and to understand the extent to which it has mobilised learning across boundaries and embedded a culture of learning, both within and outside of member organisations.”
The research is commissioned by The Health Foundation with the final report being submitted in 2012.