BMJ Quality & Safety最新文献

{"title":"What do people do in the aftermath of healthcare-related harm? A qualitative study on experiences and factors influencing decision-making.","authors":"Lavanya Thana, Helen Crocker, Shivali Modha, Linda Mulcahy, Catherine Pope, Charles Vincent, Helen Hogan, Michele Peters","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018214","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To capture experiences of people self-reporting harm and contrast responses and actions between those who do or do not take formal action.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Semi-structured qualitative interview study.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>People self-reporting harm experienced in the National Health Service (NHS) or their family/friends identified from a general Great British population survey.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>49 participants.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There were commonalities in experiences after harm whether formal action (including making a formal complaint or litigation) was taken or not. Many participants reported raising concerns informally with NHS staff, trying to access explanations or support, but were usually unsuccessful. Decision-making on action was complex. There were multiple reasons for not pursuing formal action, including fears of damaging relationships with clinicians, being occupied coping with the consequences of the harm or not wanting to take action against the NHS. NHS advocacy services were not regarded as helpful. Knowledge of how to proceed and feeling entitled to do so, along with proactive social networks, could facilitate action, but often only after people were spurred on by anger and frustration about not receiving an explanation, apology or support for recovery from the NHS. Those from marginalised groups were more likely to feel disempowered to act or be discouraged by family or social contacts, which could lead to self-distancing and reduced trust in services.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>People actively seek resolution and recovery after harm but often face multiple barriers in having their needs for explanations, apologies and support addressed. Open and compassionate engagement, especially with those from more marginalised communities, plus tailored support to address needs, could promote recovery, decrease compounded harm and reduce use of grievance services where other provision may be more helpful.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144180133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Implementing quality and safety regulations in residential disability services: a qualitative interview study.","authors":"Paul Dunbar, Laura Keyes, John Browne","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Regulation plays a central role in health and social care systems, particularly in ensuring quality, safety and accountability. However, there is limited understanding of how organisations effectively implement and adhere to these regulatory requirements. In particular, little is known about how providers of residential care facilities for people with disabilities (RCF-D) navigate and apply statutory care regulations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted semistructured interviews with managers of RCF-D. Participant recruitment followed a purposive maximum variation sampling approach. 19 participants were interviewed, representing 22 RCF-D and 16 provider organisations. Interview data were analysed using a mixed deductive-inductive approach.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Most managers were supportive of regulatory goals, creating a more favourable environment for successful implementation. By making sense of regulatory requirements and sharing insights across their organisations, managers facilitated smoother implementation. Crucially, building strong internal and external networks played a pivotal role in driving success. Collaborative relationships with inspectors, centred on a shared commitment to improving residents' lives, further strengthened the implementation process.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Managers of RCF-D devised a range of strategies to manage compliance, balancing regulatory demands with problem-solving and relationship-building. These efforts were supported by a collaborative approach to working with inspectors, which fostered a shared commitment to improving residents' lives. Our findings offer practical guidance for organisations seeking to improve regulatory compliance through effective relationship management and resource alignment. Future research could investigate how framing regulation as an adaptive intervention could further enhance implementation and sustain compliance.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metrics used in quality improvement publications addressing environmental sustainability in healthcare: a scoping review.","authors":"Colin Sue-Chue-Lam, Sezgi Yanikomeroglu, Darius Baginskis, Doulia M Hamad, Brian M Wong, Nicole Simms, Karen B Born","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2025-018519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2025-018519","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Quality improvement (QI) practices and scholarship are increasingly concerned with environmental sustainability given the negative health outcomes caused by the ecological crisis, as well as the environmental impacts of healthcare delivery itself. A core component of QI activities is measuring change. How sustainability metrics have been used in QI is unclear. We conducted a scoping review of metrics used in published sustainability-focused QI initiatives.</p><p><strong>Data sources: </strong>MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus from 2000 to 2023.</p><p><strong>Eligibility criteria: </strong>Published healthcare QI initiatives intended to address environmental sustainability with at least one quantitative sustainability metric.</p><p><strong>Data analysis: </strong>Publication, study, measurement and QI intervention characteristics were charted from included studies. Data items were synthesised and presented narratively as well as quantitatively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We screened 6294 studies and included 90 full-text publications. The studies were published from 2000 to 2023, with the majority (61%, 55/90) published since 2020. Publications originated from a wide range of clinical disciplines with most QI projects situated in the inpatient setting (78%, 70/90). Environmental sustainability metrics were subcategorised into activity data and environmental impact indicators. Some papers included more than one category of activity data, with the most common being cost (88%, 79/90), hospital waste (52%, 47/90), anaesthetic gases (49%, 44/90), disposable use (24%, 22/90) and distance travelled (14%, 13/90). Fewer publications included environmental impact indicators, with global warming potential dominating this category (53%, 48/90).</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>There is a need to align QI efforts with environmental sustainability. However, there is limited guidance specific to healthcare QI on how to measure environmental impacts of these efforts. This review illuminates that sustainability-focused QI efforts to date have used a relatively narrow set of sustainability metrics. QI scholars and practitioners can benefit from further education, measurement frameworks and guidelines to effectively incorporate environmental sustainability metrics into QI efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adverse diagnostic events in hospitalised patients: a single-centre, retrospective cohort study.","authors":"Anuj K Dalal, Savanna Plombon, Kaitlyn Konieczny, Daniel Motta-Calderon, Maria Malik, Alison Garber, Alyssa Lam, Nicholas Piniella, Marie Leeson, Pamela Garabedian, Abhishek Goyal, Stephanie Roulier, Cathy Yoon, Julie M Fiskio, Kumiko O Schnock, Ronen Rozenblum, Jacqueline Griffin, Jeffrey L Schnipper, Stuart Lipsitz, David W Bates","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017183","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017183","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Adverse event surveillance approaches underestimate the prevalence of harmful diagnostic errors (DEs) related to hospital care.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a single-centre, retrospective cohort study of a stratified sample of patients hospitalised on general medicine using four criteria: transfer to intensive care unit (ICU), death within 90 days, complex clinical events, and none of the aforementioned high-risk criteria. Cases in higher-risk subgroups were over-sampled in predefined percentages. Each case was reviewed by two adjudicators trained to judge the likelihood of DE using the Safer Dx instrument; characterise harm, preventability and severity; and identify associated process failures using the Diagnostic Error Evaluation and Research Taxonomy modified for acute care. Cases with discrepancies or uncertainty about DE or impact were reviewed by an expert panel. We used descriptive statistics to report population estimates of harmful, preventable and severely harmful DEs by demographic variables based on the weighted sample, and characteristics of harmful DEs. Multivariable models were used to adjust association of process failures with harmful DEs.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of 9147 eligible cases, 675 were randomly sampled within each subgroup: 100% of ICU transfers, 38.5% of deaths within 90 days, 7% of cases with complex clinical events and 2.4% of cases without high-risk criteria. Based on the weighted sample, the population estimates of harmful, preventable and severely harmful DEs were 7.2% (95% CI 4.66 to 9.80), 6.1% (95% CI 3.79 to 8.50) and 1.1% (95% CI 0.55 to 1.68), respectively. Harmful DEs were frequently characterised as delays (61.9%). Severely harmful DEs were frequent in high-risk cases (55.1%). In multivariable models, process failures in assessment, diagnostic testing, subspecialty consultation, patient experience, and history were significantly associated with harmful DEs.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We estimate that a harmful DE occurred in 1 of every 14 patients hospitalised on general medicine, the majority of which were preventable. Our findings underscore the need for novel approaches for adverse DE surveillance.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"377-388"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142364294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Just how many diagnostic errors and harms are out there, really? It depends on how you count.","authors":"David E Newman-Toker","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017967","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017967","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"355-360"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12129061/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143639576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quality improvement collaborative to increase access to caesarean sections: lessons from Bihar, India.","authors":"Abha Mehndiratta, Prabir Ranjan Moharana, Tanmay Mahapatra, Sridhar Srikantiah, Sunil Babu, Sarita Simba, Sanjiv Daulatrao, Vikas Pandey, Rahul Shastri, Srinivas Kodiyath, Sulagna Mukherjee, Pramod Sah, Pierre Barker","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017454","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017454","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Countries with resource-poor health systems have struggled to improve access to and the quality of caesarean section (C-section; CS) for women seeking care in public health facilities. Access to C-section in Bihar State remains very low, while access has increased in many other contexts.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used quality improvement (QI) combined with targeted resource management to test and implement changes that were designed to increase C-section delivery. We compared C-section delivery percentages after the interventions across eight intervened (QI) hospitals and between QI hospitals and the remaining 22 non-intervened (non-QI) hospitals with baseline CS <10%. We linked patterns of improvement and sustainability to theoretical drivers of improvement and timing of interventions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In QI hospitals, C-section percentage increased from 2.9% at baseline to 5.9% in the intervention phase and 4.6% in the post intervention phase. In non-QI hospitals, we observed a small change (2.6-3.3%) during the same time period of the interventions in the QI hospitals. Addition of skilled personnel resulted in increased C-section percentage in QI hospitals (3.6-5.9%) but not non-QI hospitals (3.4-3.2%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>C-section availability increased for a population of women giving birth following initiation of QI BTS collaborative in a low-income country public sector setting that has historically struggled to provide this service. Addition of obstetric and operating room resources alone, without interventions to support system changes, may not result in additional increase in C-section delivery. The adaptive implementation model may contribute to efforts to provide more access to C-sections in other very resource-limited settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"404-412"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171458/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143466543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Testing and cancer diagnosis in general practice.","authors":"Stephen Bradley, Jessica Watson","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017921","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017921","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":"34 6","pages":"351-354"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144101165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Variation in the use of primary care-led investigations prior to a cancer diagnosis: analysis of the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit.","authors":"Nurunnahar Akter, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Ruth Swann, Greg Rubin, Sean McPhail, Meena Rafiq, Abodunrin Aminu, Nadine Zakkak, Gary Abel","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017264","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017264","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Use of investigations can help support the diagnostic process of patients with cancer in primary care, but the size of variation between patient group and between practices is unclear.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analysed data on 53 252 patients from 1868 general practices included in the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit 2018 using a sequence of logistic regression models to quantify and explain practice-level variation in investigation use, accounting for patient-level case-mix and practice characteristics. Four types of investigations were considered: any investigation, blood tests, imaging and endoscopy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Large variation in practice use was observed (OR for 97.5th to 2.5th centile being 4.02, 4.33 and 3.12, respectively for any investigation, blood test and imaging). After accounting for patient case-mix, the spread of practice variation increased further to 5.61, 6.30 and 3.60 denoting that patients with characteristics associated with higher use (ie, certain cancer sites) are over-represented among practices with lower than the national average use of such investigation. Practice characteristics explained very little of observed variation, except for rurality (rural practices having lower use of any investigation) and concentration of older age patients (practices with older patients being more likely to use all types of investigations).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There is very large variation between practices in use of investigation in patients with cancer as part of the diagnostic process. It is conceivable that the diagnostic process can be improved if investigation use was to be increased in lower use practices, although it is also possible that there is overtesting in practices with very high use of investigations, and in fact both undertesting and overtesting may co-exist.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"367-376"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171502/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142494913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Learning from an allied health perspective on quality and safety.","authors":"Nicole Müller, Amr El Refaie, Margaret McGrath, Joseph McVeigh","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018107","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018107","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"361-363"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143656070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing the allied health professionals workforce within mental health, learning disability and autism inpatient services: rapid review of learning from quality and safety incidents.","authors":"Ceri Wilson, Rachel Wakefield, Louise Prothero, Gillian Janes, Fiona Nolan, Sally Fowler-Davis","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017746","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017746","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Allied health professionals (AHPs) in inpatient mental health, learning disability and autism services work in cultures dominated by other professions who often poorly understand their roles. Furthermore, identified learning from safety incidents often lacks focus on AHPs and research is needed to understand how AHPs contribute to safe care in these services.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A rapid literature review was conducted on material published from February 2014 to February 2024, reporting safety incidents within adult inpatient mental health, learning disability and autism services in England, with identifiable learning for AHPs. 115 reports/publications were included, predominantly consisting of independent investigations by NHS England, prevent future deaths reports and Care Quality Commission reports.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>Misunderstanding of AHP roles, from senior leadership to frontline staff, led to AHPs being disempowered and excluded from conversations/decisions, and patients not getting sufficient access to AHPs, contributing to safety incidents. A central thread 'organisational culture' ran through five subthemes: (1) (lack of) effective multidisciplinary team (MDT) working, evidenced by poor communication, siloed working, marginalisation of AHPs and a lack of psychological safety; (2) (lack of) AHP involvement in patient care including care and discharge planning, and risk assessment/management. Some MDTs had no AHPs, some recommendations by AHPs were not actioned and referrals to AHPs were not always made when indicated; (3) training needs were identified for AHPs and other professions; (4) staffing issues included understaffing of AHPs and (5) senior management and leadership were found to not value/understand AHP roles, and instil a blame culture. A need for cohesive, well-led and nurturing MDTs was emphasised.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Understanding and recognition of AHP roles is lacking at all levels of healthcare organisations. AHPs can be marginalised in MDTs, presenting risks to patients and missed opportunities for quality improvement. Raising awareness of the essential roles of AHPs is critical for improving quality and safety in inpatient mental health, learning disability and autism services.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"389-403"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171516/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142909064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}