Patient Safety Research Network
Overview
This network was founded in 2001 with members coming from various disciplines, including the clinical sciences (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry) together with psychology, education, engineering, the management sciences, and law and ethics. Quality and safety are inter-related to ensure that all patients receive safe, timely, efficient and effective care.
Background
Most people who use health services will receive high quality care, but some will accidentally be harmed. The reduction of harm is a major priority for the UK and other developed countries, deriving impetus from highly publicised adverse events in the hospital sector. Patient safety in primary care has received less attention but the potential for harm is significant. A recent review estimated that medical error occurs between 5 and 80 times per 100,000 consultations in general practice. Errors in prescribing were most common, occurring in about 11% of prescriptions, but communication and diagnostic errors were also prevalent. Diagnostic errors were particularly common among errors that led to formal complaints.
The underlying causes of error are complex reflecting the interaction between human factors, organisations and technology. For example, error can be viewed as:
- an educational problem - not knowing what to do
- a psychological problem - taking inappropriate risks
- a management problem - failure of maintenance or supervision
- an engineering problem - inadequate failsafe devices to protect against the misuse of equipment or drugs
- a systems problem - inadequate integration of the various components of healthcare
Understanding and implementing solutions related to patient safety therefore requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach.
Activities
There are a number of patient safety and quality initiatives across the University, partner Universities (especially Keele, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton) and our GM NHS partner Trusts.
In March 2012 the Government announced that The University of Manchester in partnership with NHS Greater Manchester has been awarded more than £6.2 million (from NIHR) which will be used to will be used to advance and refine new ways of improving safety in hospitals, GP surgeries and in the community.
Dental School
Staff in Health Science in the Dental School, lead by Prof Martin Tickle with Prof Keith Milsom and others, are investigating various patient safety related issues.
Linneaus - the European Union Framework 7 grant Learning from International Networks about Errors and Understanding Safety in Primary Care (LINNEAUS-PC) (PI Prof Aneez Esmail)
With a grant worth €2m between 2008-2012, this project is a pan European network and co-ordinated action will extend the current knowledge and experience from countries where the importance of patient safety is nationally recognised to countries where it is less developed, thus ensuring that there is an appropriate focus on primary care and co-operation and collaboration for future interventions through large scale trials is encouraged. The project partners and work packages are:
- School of Community Based Medicine (The University of Manchester)
- Work package 1: Project management and coordination activities
- Work package 2: Dissemination
- Institute for General Practice (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
- Work package 2: Developing a Taxonomy of Errors for Primary Care
- Institute of General Practice, Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine (IGP) (Paracelsus Medical University, Austria)
- Work package 3: Medication errors in primary care
- Medical Decision-making and Informatics Research Group (Kings College, London)
- Work package 4: Diagnostic errors in primary care
- School of Psychological Sciences and School of Community Based Medicine (The University of Manchester)
- Work package 5: Safety culture and performance
- Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (The Netherlands)
- Work package 6: Learning for patient safety
- Medical University of Lodz (Poland)
- Work package 7: Developing interventions for patient safety in nascent organisations
- Danish Society for Patient Safety (DSPS) (Denmark)
- Work package 8: Patient involvement
Medicines Management
This area of research is undertaken by staff in the Drug usage and pharmacy practice theme in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences - Professor Darren Ashcroft, Dr Mary Tully and colleagues.
NIHR CLAHRC for Greater Manchester
The NIHR CLAHRC for Greater Manchester is a collaboration between the University of Manchester and NHS partner organisations. The CLAHRC aims to translate research into clinical practice more effectively. It has a five year aim (2008-2013) to improve healthcare and reduce inequalities in health for people with chronic vascular conditions (diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and stroke) by:
- Developing and evaluating improved ways for the NHS to support people in managing their vascular disease;
- Implementing these and other evidence-based improvements in healthcare across Greater Manchester;
- Building NHS capacity to plan and implement evidence-based changes to care pathways for people with vascular disease.
Prof Ruth Boaden who is Deputy Director of CLAHRC, is Professor of Service Operations Management in Manchester Business School and is lead for the Implementation theme in CLAHRC. Improving quality and patient safety are, of course, key issues for the CLAHRC.
In addition, the Systems theme in CLAHRC is developing the information systems needed to improve healthcare planning in Greater Manchester, by monitoring variations and inequalities in healthcare provision for people with chronic vascular disease, and assessing the likely impacts of interventions intended to improve patient care and public health.This includes harnessing electronic healthcare records for early warning of safety issues especially at the interface between primary and secondary care. Prof Iain Buchan is theme lead for Systems and Director of North West Institute for Biohealth Informatics.
Primary Care
There are interconnected themes concerned with patient safety issues across a number of research themes in primary care such as:
Key staff members include Prof Aneez Esmail, Dr Stephen Campbell and Professor Anne Rogers who work with many other colleagues in Primary care, and elsewhere, on these topics.
Lead for the Patient Safety Research Network is:
Professor Aneez Esmail (Professor of General Practice, Primary Care, School of Community Based Medicine, The University of Manchester)
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