The Relationship Between Risk Management and Patient Safety Incidents in Acute Hospitals in NHS England

Abstract

In healthcare, a number of applications have been applied from high-risk industries to minimise the risk of harm. However, there is little formal evidence to demonstrate the relationships between those applications and their contributions to patient safety. In this study, a correlation analysis was conducted to explore the link between risk management and patient safety incidents in hospitals in NHS England. Findings revealed that hospitals with the highest risk management level report more incidents and demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between risk management and patient safety incidents data. In contrast, hospitals with lower risk management levels do not demonstrate any statistically significant relationships. This study concludes that reporting a higher number of incidents is likely to be as a result of having a better risk management in hospitals, which indicates that a higher number of incidents reported refers to having a better incident reporting culture.