Development and testing of the PAtient SafeTy risk Assessment (PASTA) tool to maximise learning from patient safety incidents in healthcare organisati

One in 20 patients is exposed to preventable harm in medical care; translating to one patient safety incident
occurring every 26 seconds in the NHS. Healthcare organisational learning is key to minimising risk and
improving patient safety. Despite major investments in health systems worldwide to understand risk, the
statistics show minimal reductions in harm, serious error or death commensurate with the effort and costs of
the system. Using case-cross over analysis, the PhD will develop a solution to sensitively explore complex
patterns of risk(s) with healthcare professionals involved in a patient safety incident to quickly learn why a
medical error (or near-miss) occurred and enable timely decisions about intervention priorities and actions
for improvement. Ethical guidelines for clinical research will be followed. We will seek ethical review
followed by R&D approval (IRAS). Should COVID-19 constraints ensue, the project can be conducted as desk
research (using telephone interviews) to mitigate exposure directly to healthcare environments.