Safer Clinical Systems initiative launched
The Health Foundation has launched a programme to test and demonstrate ways to improve healthcare systems and processes to systematically improve patient safety. The five-year initiative, Safer Clinical Systems, began in October.
Teams with practical expertise in clinical systems improvement have been selected from five NHS sites working together with expert advisers to co-design the programme.
Sites include:
- Bolton PCT and Bolton Hospitals Trust
- Hereford Hospitals Trust
- Plymouth Hospitals Trust
- NHS Lothian
They will design and test a range of clinical systems interventions to improve patient safety.
The programme will build on the success of the Safer Patient’s Initiative (SPI) [link]. Learning from SPI has highlighted the need to take a clinical systems approach to improving safety.
Through a systems approach, healthcare staff can start to define which parts of a clinical care process may be compromising the safe care of the patient.
The programme is divided into three phases. The ‘proof of concept’ stage will design and test systems improvement approaches to improve patient safety.
Phase 2 will demonstrate successes and lessons from phase 1 on a larger scale. Phase 3 will aim to speed up the spread of systems approaches to patient safety across the UK.
