Positive deviance in healthcare study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Positive deviance in healthcare study: A broad qualitative inquiry.
IRAS ID
177435
Contact name
Laura Sheard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
We are researching a concept called ‘positive deviance’, which is essentially about high performance in healthcare and how services achieve their success. The main idea behind positive deviance is that highly performing services are doing something different to the norm (‘deviating’) in a positive manner to other healthcare providers. In this study, we want to look at orthopaedic services – and in particular hip and knee replacement healthcare - to understand how services operate and what they might be doing differently to each other to achieve their performance level. The focus is on why the service is successful rather than usual approach of finding problems.
Our research team have already undertaken a thorough exercise to categorise all the Trusts in the Yorkshire and Humber region based on their performance in relation to: i) emergency readmissions ii) Patient Reported Outcome Measures. We have then categorised all these Trusts into four categories: excellent, good, average and poor. In this research, we will be working with four Trusts, three of whom are in the excellent category and one who is in the good category.
We will use qualitative methods to uncover how different hospitals are achieving their success.
1. Mapping exercise using focus groups and documentary analysis. Clinicians will be asked where they think areas of positive deviance may lie (at all four Trusts)
2. Orientation stage – researchers will observe staff members on the ward and in different settings, looking for areas of positive practice (at two Trusts)
3. Focus stage – researchers will hone in on where they think the positive deviance lies by conducting further observations and interviewing key people (at two Trusts)We will use a method of analysis called ‘constant comparison’. We will produce novel findings which focus on success rather than the usual emphasis in healthcare research which tends to focus on improving previous failures.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0274
Date of REC Opinion
1 May 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion