Every year in the UK patients experience incidents in hospital that put them at risk of harm and even death. These incidents are preventable and nearly always caused by system failures. It’s time to shed the assumption that the service is inherently unreliable and tackle system failures by investigating, understanding and acting upon avoidable harm. We have worked successfully with healthcare organisations across the UK to improve the quality of services they offer to patients. Our patient safety work interlocks with our approach to improving quality by developing leadership, engaging clinicians and patients and building knowledge of what works.
Case studies
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Learning international lessons in quality improvement
Jason Leitch was a Quality Improvement Fellow in the USA in 2005. He is now helping lead the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance in overseeing Scotland’s first national patient safety programme.
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Using leadership to improve patient safety
Patient safety is literally at the top of the agenda at NHS Tayside. Rather than finance or performance management, safety is the first issue discussed at the executive team’s weekly meeting.
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International patient safety lessons
The Health Foundation's Quality Improvement Fellowships aim to develop leaders to promote quality improvement nationally. Dr Noeleen Devaney worked on a research project in the US that looked at how to get doctors involved in improving quality and is now back in the UK working with other hospitals to help them to improve patient safety.
Publications
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Patient safety update
This update explains the Health Foundation's continuing work around patient safety, what we've learnt so far and our key priorities for the future.
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Making our hospitals safer
Inspiring stories from participants on the Safer Patients Initiative show how it helped their hospitals to prioritise patient safety.
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Safe from harm
This briefing shows how The Health Foundation’s Safer Patients Initiative is reducing medical incidents in 24 hospitals and making healthcare safer for patients.
Featured data
Current activities
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Clinical human factors group
The clinical human factors group aims to enhance the knowledge of all healthcare professionals about ‘human factors’ and how to manage more successfully human error. The group has no political or policy agenda other than to define and encourage best practice.
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Improving patient safety in mental health
The aim of the ‘Improving patient safety in mental health’ programme is to support four organisations across the UK to improve the reliability of care in order to reduce harm and raise safety awareness throughout their organisations. Participating organisations will aim to produce a tested set of change packages replicable across other mental health care providers.
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Improving the safety of maternity services
The aim of this programme of work is to improve the safety and reliability of obstetrics and midwifery through a teamwork solution, by developing exceptional clinical leadership skills, team practices and unit-level improvement capability in four UK hospitals.
Features
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Tackling patient safety through team working
Torbay hospital is one of 20 hospitals selected to join the Safer Patients Initiative. The hospitals are working in pairs with five teams covering leadership, critical care, perioperative care, medicines management and the general wards.
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Stopping needless deaths in hospital
Every year, thousands of NHS patients suffer unintended harm from their treatment in hospital. Luton and Dunstable hospital is using an Early Warning Scorecard and critical care outreach to reduce their number of adverse events.
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Safety is the key for change
Hugh Ross is at the helm of one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK, with responsibility for over 13 500 staff and a turnover of £625 million. His experience in Bristol has made him a tireless advocate for patient safety.
Latest news
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SPI site awarded Small Trust of the Year
Dr Foster has named Airedale NHS Trust Small Trust of the Year, recognising their excellent contribution to quality care in the NHS. Airedale General Hospital is one of 20 sites involved in phase 2 of the Health Foundation’s Safer Patients Initiative.
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NHS urged to prioritise safety
The Health Foundation's response to the Health Committee’s inquiry into patient safety urges the NHS to make patient safety its top priority.
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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.