Effect of after action review on safety culture and second victim experience and its implementation in an Irish hospital: A mixed methods study protocol.

BACKGROUND: After Action Review is a form of facilitated team learning and review of events. The methodology originated in the United States Army and forms part of the Incident Management Framework in the Irish Health Services. After Action Review has been hypothesized to improve safety culture and the effect of patient safety events on staff (second victim experience) in health care settings. Yet little direct evidence exists to support this and its implementation has not been studied. AIM: To investigate the effect of After Action Review on safety culture and second victim experience and to examine After Action Review implementation in a hospital setting. METHODS: A mixed methods study will be conducted at an Irish hospital. To assess the effect on safety culture and second victim experience, hospital staff will complete surveys before and twelve months after the introduction of After Action Review to the hospital (Hospital Survey on Safety Culture 2.0 and Second Victim Experience and Support Tool). Approximately one in twelve staff will be trained as After Action Review Facilitators using a simulation based training programme. Six months after the After Action Review training, focus groups will be conducted with a stratified random sample of the trained facilitators. These will explore enablers and barriers to implementation using the Theoretical Domains Framework. At twelve months, information will be collected from the trained facilitators and the hospital to establish the quality and resource implications of implementing After Action Review. DISCUSSION: The results of the study will directly inform local hospital decision-making and national and international approaches to incorporating After Action Review in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

The Irish National Adverse Event Study-2 (INAES-2): longitudinal trends in adverse event rates in the Irish healthcare system.

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the prevalence and nature of adverse events in acute Irish hospitals in 2015 and to assess the impact of the National Clinical Programmes and the National Clinical Guidelines on the prevalence of adverse events by comparing these results with the previously published data from 2009. DESIGN AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review of 1605 admissions to eight Irish hospitals in 2015, using identical methods to those used in 2009. RESULTS: The percentage of admissions associated with one or more adverse events was unchanged (p=0.48) at 14% (95% CI=10.4% to 18.4%) in 2015 compared with 12.2% (95% CI=9.5% to 15.5%) in 2009. Similarly, the prevalence of preventable adverse events was unchanged (p=0.3) at 7.4% (95% CI=5.3% to 10.5%) in 2015 compared with 9.1% (95% CI=6.9% to 11.9%) in 2009. The incidence densities of preventable adverse events were 5.6 adverse events per 100 admissions (95% CI=3.4 to 8.0) in 2015 and 7.7 adverse events per 100 admissions (95% CI=5.8 to 9.6) in 2009 (p=0.23). However, the percentage of preventable adverse events due to hospital-associated infections decreased to 22.2% (95% CI=15.2% to 31.1%) in 2015 from 33.1% (95% CI=25.6% to 41.6%) in 2009 (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: Adverse event rates remained stable between 2009 and 2015. The percentage of preventable adverse events related to hospital-associated infection decreased, which may represent a positive impact of the related national programmes and guidelines.