Strengthening Governance Arrangements for Infection Control and Medication Errors

Lead researchers: Carin Magnusson & Dr Angus Ramsay

Programme Director: Professor Naomi Fulop

Aims

This project will look at how a London NHS Foundation Trust is organised to manage healthcare acquired infections and medication errors. We will learn how organisational structures and processes try to ensure safe practice throughout the hospital (identifying examples of effective structures); we will also identify ways to improve the systems observed. This will be done by:-

• Reviewing past research examining how hospitals manage healthcare acquired infections (e.g. MRSA) and medication errors
• Conducting a mapping exercise to show how the Trust is organised to support effective management of healthcare acquired infections and medication errors
• Exploring how internal factors (e.g. key events in the Trust's history, senior hospital personnel) and external factors (e.g. government targets, newspaper reports) influence these structures and processes
• Spending time in the hospital environment to gain a richer understanding of how these structures and processes work
• Developing and testing interventions to improve these structures and processes

Why is this important?

By establishing what internal and external factors influence governance of patient safety – e.g. if government policy that identifies a particular risk to patient safety strengthens governance arrangements around that risk - we hope to support the development of new, effective methods for policy makers and the NHS in supporting hospitals to provide the safest healthcare possible.

Participants

Managers, doctors and nurses will be interviewed, along with people with an interest in or experiences of the Trust’s approach to managing healthcare acquired infections and medication errors (Strategic Health Authorities, special interest groups etc.).

Anticipated outcomes

• Detailed descriptions of the Trust’s governance of healthcare acquired infections and medication errors
• Maps of the key influences on these governance structures, interventions to support or improve these structures and evaluation of these interventions.
• Online updates, academic articles and seminars to publicise what we have learned.