Over the second period (from December 2023 (M19) to May 2025 (M36)), the SAFEST has completed a series of key activities and achieved significant milestones. Over this period, the consortium has focused on aligning hospitals shared improvement aims and developing action plans for launching and implementing the Perioperative Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative (PQILC), which officially began in June 2024. In parallel, preparations were also made for the launch of the open phase of the self-evaluation. During this time, the SAFEST consortium successfully achieved several key project milestones, including:
SAFEST Practices in Perioperative Care
1. Finalized SAFEST standardized practices, refined through iterative self-evaluation feedback.
2. Translated 101 safety recommendations into nine languages for wider accessibility.
3. Launched the interactive COMPASS mini-site for healthcare professionals, managers, and patients to consult perioperative safety guidance.
SAFEST Platform
4. Expanded the online platform to include self-evaluation, action planning, data collection, monitoring, benchmarking, and PROMs/PREMs registration.
5. Deployed monitoring and benchmarking modules for tracking adherence and surgical complication rates across hospitals.
6. Developed and tested a patient app (iOS/Android) for PROMs and PREMs, with supporting recruitment and data collection guidelines.
Hospital Self-Evaluation
7. Continued refining educational and training materials.
8. Published pre-intervention self-evaluation reports.
9. Launched an open-phase self-evaluation survey, supported by introductory webinars; ~30 hospitals have shown interest.
Evaluation & Monitoring
10. Conducted training and calibration exercises for data collectors; bi-monthly Q&A sessions provided ongoing support.
11. Ten hospitals began collecting data on SAFEST practice adherence and surgical outcomes.
12. Ten hospitals initiated PROMs and PREMs patient recruitment and data collection.
Prioritization & Action Planning
13. Identified common hospital-level priorities from self-evaluation results.
14. Supported hospitals in converting priorities into action plans; a live planning session was held in Prague.
15. Delivered a toolbox to assist with priority setting, barrier assessment, and action planning.
European Quality Improvement Collaborative (PQILC)
16. PQILC launched in June 2024, with 4 expert and 7 coaching sessions, including a live meeting in Nijmegen.
17. Deployed a context survey using the CFIR/IRLM framework to assess implementation conditions.
18. Began interviews to explore factors influencing collaborative learning.
19. Produced and shared summaries of all PQILC sessions to support ongoing learning.
Patient Empowerment
20. Identified, translated (Czech, Estonian, Portuguese), and adapted PROMs and PREMs scales.
21. Created patient journey maps per hospital and completed a cross-hospital analysis.
22. Developed an animated video on perioperative safety for patients, with English narration and subtitles in 8 languages.
