Patient Reporting of Safety: A Feasibility Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient reporting of safety in organisational care transfers (PRoSOCT): A feasibility study of a patient reporting tool as a proactive approach to identifying latent conditions within healthcare systems.
IRAS ID
133440
Contact name
Jason Scott
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
York St John University
Research summary
Patients being transferred between organisations are often at risk, particularly in relation to the admission and discharge processes. Whilst a number of studies are investigating how patients can report on their own safety, no such studies are known to the researchers that are being conducted in relation to organisational care transfers. This study will build upon our previous research by investigating the feasibility of a reporting tool, which was developed by patients and healthcare professionals using patient definitions of safety, for patients to report on their own safety following an organisational care transfer.
All ’care of the elderly’, ’stroke’, ’cardiac’ and ’orthopaedic’ patients, discharged from four wards across three sites, will be provided with a patient safety survey relating to their care transfer. Based on the survey reports, we will use the principles of Appreciative Inquiry methodology to proactively monitor and understand safety (as opposed to ‘unsafety’) and improve services from patients’ perspectives.
This feasibility study will address three objectives; measurement of patient reports of safety relating to their care transfer and clinical outcome measures, receptiveness of patients to the reporting tool in the clinical setting of organisational care transfers, and engagement and responsiveness of healthcare professionals to patient reports of safety, including how healthcare professionals use them to inform their own practice. A mixed-methods approach will be utilised, with qualitative research informing the cyclical development of the reporting tool, and case studies highlighting examples of best practice in relation to the use of patient reports of safety to improve healthcare delivery.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0372
Date of REC Opinion
19 Nov 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion