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Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation

BACKGROUND: Auditing of patient safety aims at early detection of risks of adverse events and is intended to encourage the continuous improvement of patient safety. The auditing should be an independent, objective assurance and consulting system. Auditing helps an organisation accomplish its objecti...

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Autores principales: Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle, Zegers, Marieke, Boeijen, Wilma, Westert, Gert P, van Gurp, Petra J, Wollersheim, Hub
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3708817/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23800253
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-226
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author Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle
Zegers, Marieke
Boeijen, Wilma
Westert, Gert P
van Gurp, Petra J
Wollersheim, Hub
author_facet Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle
Zegers, Marieke
Boeijen, Wilma
Westert, Gert P
van Gurp, Petra J
Wollersheim, Hub
author_sort Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Auditing of patient safety aims at early detection of risks of adverse events and is intended to encourage the continuous improvement of patient safety. The auditing should be an independent, objective assurance and consulting system. Auditing helps an organisation accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance. Audits are broadly conducted in hospitals, but little is known about their effects on the behaviour of healthcare professionals and patient safety outcomes. This study was initiated to evaluate the effects of patient safety auditing in hospital care and to explore the processes and mechanisms underlying these effects. METHODS AND DESIGN: Our study aims to evaluate an audit system to monitor and improve patient safety in a hospital setting. We are using a mixed-method evaluation with a before-and-after study design in eight departments of one university hospital in the period October 2011–July 2014. We measure several outcomes 3 months before the audit and 15 months after the audit. The primary outcomes are adverse events and complications. The secondary outcomes are experiences of patients, the standardised mortality ratio, prolonged hospital stay, patient safety culture, and team climate. We use medical record reviews, questionnaires, hospital administrative data, and observations to assess the outcomes. A process evaluation will be used to find out which components of internal auditing determine the effects. DISCUSSION: We report a study protocol of an effect and process evaluation to determine whether auditing improves patient safety in hospital care. Because auditing is a complex intervention targeted on several levels, we are using a combination of methods to collect qualitative and quantitative data about patient safety at the patient, professional, and department levels. This study is relevant for hospitals that want to early detect unsafe care and improve patient safety continuously. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): NTR3343
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spelling pubmed-37088172013-07-12 Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle Zegers, Marieke Boeijen, Wilma Westert, Gert P van Gurp, Petra J Wollersheim, Hub BMC Health Serv Res Study Protocol BACKGROUND: Auditing of patient safety aims at early detection of risks of adverse events and is intended to encourage the continuous improvement of patient safety. The auditing should be an independent, objective assurance and consulting system. Auditing helps an organisation accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance. Audits are broadly conducted in hospitals, but little is known about their effects on the behaviour of healthcare professionals and patient safety outcomes. This study was initiated to evaluate the effects of patient safety auditing in hospital care and to explore the processes and mechanisms underlying these effects. METHODS AND DESIGN: Our study aims to evaluate an audit system to monitor and improve patient safety in a hospital setting. We are using a mixed-method evaluation with a before-and-after study design in eight departments of one university hospital in the period October 2011–July 2014. We measure several outcomes 3 months before the audit and 15 months after the audit. The primary outcomes are adverse events and complications. The secondary outcomes are experiences of patients, the standardised mortality ratio, prolonged hospital stay, patient safety culture, and team climate. We use medical record reviews, questionnaires, hospital administrative data, and observations to assess the outcomes. A process evaluation will be used to find out which components of internal auditing determine the effects. DISCUSSION: We report a study protocol of an effect and process evaluation to determine whether auditing improves patient safety in hospital care. Because auditing is a complex intervention targeted on several levels, we are using a combination of methods to collect qualitative and quantitative data about patient safety at the patient, professional, and department levels. This study is relevant for hospitals that want to early detect unsafe care and improve patient safety continuously. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): NTR3343 BioMed Central 2013-06-22 /pmc/articles/PMC3708817/ /pubmed/23800253 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-226 Text en Copyright © 2013 Hanskamp-Sebregts et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Study Protocol
Hanskamp-Sebregts, Mirelle
Zegers, Marieke
Boeijen, Wilma
Westert, Gert P
van Gurp, Petra J
Wollersheim, Hub
Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title_full Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title_fullStr Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title_short Effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
title_sort effects of auditing patient safety in hospital care: design of a mixed-method evaluation
topic Study Protocol
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3708817/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23800253
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-226
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