Approximately 12% of adult inpatients in Irish hospitals will experience an adverse event, with the vast majority (70%) preventable. Each adverse event costs approximately 5,550e. Although efforts to understand and improve patient safety have become increasingly commonplace, the patient ‘voice’ has largely been ignored. Current practices position the patient as passive, merely experiencing safety incidents and healthcare delivery, and fail to recognise the active role patients can play in ensuring safe care. Patients and families observe almost all healthcare interactions and can provide valuable insights. The Irish Health Service Executive’s Patient Safety Strategy includes “Empowering and Engaging Patients to Improve Patient Safety” as a key goal but is nonspecific on how this can be achieved. The strategy does not consider the barriers (e.g., concerns about reporting safety data negatively impacting care) and facilitators (e.g., training on how to provide safety data) to patient involvement in safety data collection, though addressing these is essential to establishing and maintaining successful patient involvement.
Accordingly, the aim of the proposed research is to utilise existing research, relevant theory, and stakeholder engagement to co-design an approach to involving patients in safety data collection in adult inpatient hospital care. The project will comprise: 1) a systematic review to identify existing methods of involving patients in safety data collection; 2) exploration of experiences of implementing approaches to involving patients in safety data collection to generate transferable learning; 3) assessment of barriers and facilitators to involving patients in safety data collection; 4) co-design of an approach to involving patients in safety data collection with stakeholders, and; 5) dissemination of findings. The proposed research will provide evidence-based guidance for policy makers, health service managers, and health service providers on ‘how’ patients can best be involved in safety data collection to support improved patient safety.