Patient safety improvement with the patient engagement in Iran: A best practice implementation project

BACKGROUND: Patient engagement in patient safety is aimed at increasing the awareness and participation of patients in error-prevention strategies. The aim of this project was to improve the patient safety with the patient engagement within the local context of a maternity hospital by implementing best practice. METHODS: A clinical audit was conducted using the JBI Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System tool. The current project was conducted in surgical ward of Shahid-Beheshti maternity hospital, Iran. The sample size was 46 patients and 46 healthcare practitioners for both the baseline and follow-up. In phase 1, four audit criteria were used and a baseline audit was conducted for this project. In phase 2, barriers to compliance were identified, and strategies were adopted to promote best practice. In phase 3, a follow-up audit was conducted. RESULTS: The results showed varying levels of compliance with the four criteria used in this project. The criterion 1, which was related to training of healthcare practitioners on how they can support patients, has the highest compliance at 87% in baseline and follow up data collection. Furthermore, compared with the baseline data (criterion 2 = 52%; criterion 3 = 37%; criterion 4 = 61%), compliance with criteria 2, 3, and 4 notably improved at 85, 76, and 92%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The present project successfully implements patient engagement in Iran and reveals varying results on compliance and the increasing knowledge of healthcare practitioners and patients on evidence-based patient engagement in order to improve the patient safety. The used strategies can facilitate implementation of evidence based procedures in clinical practice.