Patient Safety Award

HSJ Awards 2024 - Patient Safety Award
Patient Safety Award
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How to apply

Entries have now closed

 

The aim of all patient safety initiatives is to ultimately reduce avoidable harm within the health system. This could involve everything from improving communication between teams, to reviewing staff mix, to encouraging staff and patients to speak up about risk. Some risks we know and understand – yet we fail to action key learnings in order to reduce them.  There are more subtle risks that will become apparent only when we look at safety incidents systematically. But whether we are dealing with known or unknown risks, there is a need for a culture in which staff can confidently report risks and concerns, and know that these issues will be taken seriously and investigated in order to prevent harm from occurring in the first place.

At a time in which championing patient safety is more crucial than ever, this award recognises not just initiatives focused on identifying a risk and preventing it, but also projects that have introduced a culture in which incidents are reliably reported, investigated and learnt from.

Eligibility

This category is open to healthcare organisations, teams and collaborations across the public and third sectors who have developed successful and continually improving patient safety initiatives.

Ambition

  • Provide detail on the patient safety context in which services are delivered. What has been the recent history and identify where improvements have been needed.
  • How has the patient safety agenda been approached with the stakeholder organisations, staff and patient?
  • What performance targets have been set? What is the vision for patient safety and high quality care?
  • How does culture effect the patient safety agenda within stakeholder organisations?

Outcome

  • Judges are looking for clear and convincing evidence of programmes which have improved safety.
  • Examples could include evidence that drug errors have fallen, falls have reduced, or communication failings have been eliminated.
  • Describe the results of initiatives which have created an open and learning based culture in which staff and patients have clear and trusted channels to raise concerns. Include evidence of consultation with patient groups and staff which have contributed to improvements.
  • Give any relevant detail on reduction in litigation expenditure and mitigation of risk.

Spread

  • How has best practice and experience resulting from patient safety initiatives been shared with other teams and organisations?
  • How could patient safety initiatives potentially help others reduce the risk of harm?

Value

  • Has an initiative delivered financial savings alongside improved patient experience?
  • Provide supporting evidence of any monetary impact of patient safety improvements
  • What has been the result on staff and their ability to effect high quality care?

Involvement

  • Provide an explanation of how of a strong team or organisational safety culture has been introduced.
  • How has patient safety improved as a result of consultation with staff and patients? Describe a culture in which all staff feel able to raise risks and have confidence they will be acted upon.
  • What ongoing consultation takes place between staff and patients?

To find out more

Partnership opportunities:  Sponsorship Sales Team
Awards entry enquiries: Delegate Sales Team
Judging and event management: Awards Support