NIHR Patient Safety and Service Quality
The Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre was formed through the existing strong working partnership of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London and is led by Professor Naomi Fulop.
The centre is a unique partnership between a teaching hospital, and a university whose purpose is to develop and test interventions to improve quality and safety, drawing on research methodologies from both health and non-health disciplines at the university.
It is one of two nationally designated PSSQ Centres funded by the National Institute for Health Research, as part of the Government’s ‘Best Research for Best Health’ strategy.
Aims of the Centre
The centre aims to find new ways of improving the safety and quality of health care services. It will examine how services are organised in order to develop and test interventions to improve safety and quality of care. Practical advances in care and management that make a real difference to patients and staff are being developed and evaluated.
As a leading centre of excellence and best practice, the PSSQ Research Centre provides guidance to healthcare organisations across the UK.
On the research front, the centre plans to improve the sharing of knowledge across the healthcare sector, enabling patients to benefit earlier from the findings.
Our work
The centre is looking at how services are both organised and delivered within the NHS by studying safety and quality practices in the health care sector as well as drawing upon knowledge and best practice from other industries. A team of highly experienced NHS professionals and academic experts from across the social sciences arena are examining healthcare practices at different levels; from individual experiences of care, to organisation of particular services through to hospital-wide implementation of government policy.
There are four separate research programmes:
Risk - How do different health care professions handle risk, and how is it calculated and managed by staff and patients? For example, examining how staff turnover can affect risk, and how data from different parts of a Trust can inform decisions about management of risk.
Innovation - How can novel health technologies be safely introduced and managed? Can services be organised in different ways to improve patient safety and service quality? For example, looking at whether continuity of care can improve access, prevent patients falling through ‘gaps’ and improve the patient journey through complex care systems, or looking at how delays in the detection and management of patients with deteriorating conditions can be improved.
Workforce - What are the staffing issues? How are staff managed and supported? What are the attitudes and behaviour of those employed in healthcare? For example, looking at incidents of violence and harassment and the impact they have on staff.
Organisational Governance models - What systems does an organisation use to ensure it is providing safe, high quality care? For example, examining how information about services is collected and used by management; the use of management tools such as ’scorecards’; and systems and processes used, for example, to improve infection control and reduce drug errors.
Involving patients and wider NHS staff
Staff from a number of NHS organisations will be involved, including Primary Care Trusts as well as Hospitals, as partners to help take the work forward. A wide range of patients is also participating in the research.
For more information visit our website www.kingspssq.org.uk.
