King's Patient Safety & Service Quality Research Centre (King's PSSQ) is taking the lead on a major new international research project on quality and safety in European hospitals. A grant of €3 million has been secured for the work (subject to contract), which will also involve the PSSQ Research Centre at Imperial College and partners from Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway*.
The King's PSSQ Centre (also part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, a collaboration between King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts) aims to bring together NHS professionals with academic experts from a wide range of backgrounds, including management and the social sciences, to focus on investigating ways to improve the care of patients.
This three-year study, starting in 2010, will explore the relationships between the organisational and cultural characteristics of hospitals and how these impact upon clinical effectiveness, patient safety and experience in European countries. Data will be collected in two hospitals in each of the five partner countries, with additional studies of two particular clinical areas in one hospital in each country.
Whilst there is a good understanding of the types of quality improvement undertaken in healthcare, less is known of the organisational and cultural processes that determine the effectiveness of these methods. By examining the relationship between these processes and quality on different levels – from the national healthcare system through to the hospital, to the frontline clinical team – in each of the five partner countries, the study will unveil how the dynamics and interactions between these different levels impact on sustained quality of hospital care.
Professor Naomi Fulop, Director of King's PSSQ comments; 'The project will provide invaluable information about which organisational systems in European hospitals work to improve patient safety and service quality, and which create barriers. It is the first time that partners across Europe have come together to investigate these issues in depth, and we share a commitment to use the research findings to improve the quality and safety of patient care on an ongoing basis.'
The research will enable the team to deliver effective solutions to hospital leaders, based on the realities of implementing quality improvement programmes. The findings will be used to design and disseminate an evidence-based Quality and Safety Guide for Hospitals to guide hospitals on implementing effective organisation-wide quality and safety improvement initiatives.
In parallel, a Framework for Assessing Hospital Quality will also be compiled, enabling purchasers of hospital services and governments throughout the EU to monitor and assess the effectiveness, safety and patient experience of hospital care.
Notes to editors
- The project has been named Quality and Safety in European Union Hospitals: A Research-based Guide for Implementing Best Practice and a Framework for Assessing Performance (QUASER). *Partners include the Imperial Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality (CPSSQ); the Department of Health Studies at the University of Stavanger, Norway; the Department of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University, Netherlands; Qulturum, Jönköping County Council, Sweden; Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), Lisbon, Portugal.
- NIHR King's Patient Safety & Service Quality Research Centre is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The Centre brings together NHS professionals with academic experts from a wide range of backgrounds, including management and the social sciences, to focus on investigating ways to improve the care of patients. www.kingspssq.org.uk.
- The European Union's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) is the EU's main instrument for funding research and runs for seven years, from 2007 until 2013. The programme has a total budget of over € 50 billion. FP7 is a key tool to respond to Europe's needs in terms of jobs and competitiveness, and to maintain leadership in the global knowledge economy. Health is a major theme of the Specific Programme on Cooperation, with a total budget of € 6.1 billion over the duration of FP7. The programme is managed by the European Commission in Brussels and based on competitive calls for proposals in priority areas that are identified by the 39 EU and non-EU countries contributing to this programme.
- King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
- King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
- King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
- King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.