Developing the University of Tartu to a well-networked PATient SAFEty research center in Estonia

Project Information

PATSAFE

Grant agreement ID: 857359

DOI

10.3030/857359

Project closed

EC signature date 11 July 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 31 August 2022

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 802 087,50

EU contribution

€ 800 000,00

Coordinated by

TARTU ULIKOOL
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PATSAFE (Developing the University of Tartu to a well-networked PATient SAFEty research center in Estonia)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2022-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Patient safety incidents in healthcare are a common phenomenon which affects all countries worldwide. Estimates show that 1/10 patients are harmed during hospital care resulting in 23 million disability-adjusted life years lost per year. Research is an essential cornerstone for tackling the alarming situation of patient safety. As well as helping to understand the magnitude and nature of patient harm and focus on critical improvement areas, it also contributes to devising evidence-based strategies and evaluating the effectiveness of potential solutions. The PATSAFE project aimed to enhance the Institute of Clinical Medicine of the University of Tartu (ICM-UT) research potential and capacities in patient safety in order to improve and strengthen knowledge and skills in methods, techniques and experience for patient safety research, thereby positively impacting the overall health care quality and patient safety research and innovation performance of Estonia. Strategic partnership with Avedis Donabedian Foundation from Spain and IQ Healthcare from The Netherlands, both international leaders in patient safety research, has enabled the developing a long-lasting knowledge exchange alliance allowing ICM-UT to capitalize on its current achievements and overcoming gaps in scientific excellence in the field of patient safety research.
The general objective of the PATSAFE project was to improve and strengthen research excellence of the ICM-UT in the field of patient safety research among the early-stage researchers (ESRs) and staff with a special focus on improving knowledge and skills in methods, technics and experience for patient safety research. More specifically, the project aimed to strengthen the research capacity of ICM-UT and raise early-stage researchers (ESRs) and staff’s research profiles in the following fields:

• Identification and measurement of risks and hazards in patient safety,
• Patient safety culture and patient empowerment on their safety, and
• Soft skills to support the implementation of patient safety research in practice.

For the long-term sustainability of patient safety research in Estonia, the project also aimed to increase the visibility of ICM-UT’s excellence in patient safety research as well as to strengthen ICM-UT´s networking capacity and credibility on the national and international level.
Improving the scientific and innovation capabilities and performance of ICM-UT in patient safety research methodology, this project has a positive impact on Estonia's overall healthcare quality and patient safety research and innovation performance. This enables researchers to investigate the magnitude and nature of patient harm in Estonia and, ultimately, contribute to promoting the development of evidence-based strategies and evaluating the effectiveness of potential solutions. This approach will eventually decrease the burden of healthcare-caused harm to the loss of capacity and productivity of patients being harmed and to the loss of trust in the health system and leads to additional free resources within the health system.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The PATSAFE consortium has developed and implemented a training programme for patient safety research to achieve the objectives. This unique and comprehensive curriculum covers relevant areas in patient safety research and consists of three modules:

1) Fundamentals in patient safety:
* The science of patient safety and the burden of unsafe care,
* Methods of analysis of adverse events and improvement of patient safety (I),
* Methods of analysis of adverse events and improvement of patient safety (II),
* Implementation science and patient safety improvement.

2) Patient safety culture and patient involvement in patient safety research:
* Patient safety culture,
* Patient involvement in patient safety and patient safety research,
* Validation techniques of measurement tools to study patient safety culture in healthcare settings in Estonia,
* An introduction to literature reviews.

3) Development of soft skills to support the implementation of patient safety research in practice:
* Research proposal,
* Research ethics,
* Intellectual property rights and commercialization in research,
* Human resources and change management in clinical settings,
* An introduction to qualitative research.

In total, 82 participants – academic staff of the ICM-UT, ESRs and health care workers – received the course certificates. As a result of the training programme, four PhD students are doing their research in patient safety at the University of Tartu.
Based on the PATSAFE training programme, new e-courses for the healthcare staff in Estonia were developed; one training course has been implemented into the Master’s programme of nursing sciences at the University of Tartu as a whole. We have published papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented the results at several international conferences.
An important milestone in the development and sustainability of patient safety research at the University of Tartu is the institutional patient safety research and development strategy for the University of Tartu. Two European proposals have been jointly prepared and submitted, and one has been funded: “Improving quality and patient safety in surgical care through Standardisation and harmonization of perioperative care in Europe” (SAFEST- Grant agreement ID: 101057825). Thus, the partners will continue their collaboration in a new consortium.

To reach the target groups, different channels have been used to disseminate and exploit the project results like publications in peer-reviewed journals, presentations in international conferences and the project final conference, the project website, social media, and local media.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The impact of the project can be seen in different areas. The research impact is expressed in an increased number of publications in the field of patient safety and in new research topics and proposals which have emerged from the project. The research impact has also promoted the dissemination impact: several activities were implemented to create awareness of the project and patient safety. There is also an educational impact of the project. Several courses developed and implemented during the project have been integrated in the curricula of partner universities, and new educational methods have been incorporated by partners in the continuous professional education. In collaboration with the stakeholders’ new courses for healthcare staff have been developed. All partners gained online skills, which is helpful in providing online education. The clinical impact of the project can be seen when patient safety practices are applied in clinical environment. For the society the impact is expressed first of all in increased patient safety as a result of improvements following PATSAFE training. Society has more information on patient safety research and this leads to deeper understanding of the role of patients in patient safety as well. The project’s policy impact is promoted by the recommendations for the national patient safety strategy in Estonia as well as by the cooperation of the stakeholders. This will emphasize the role of research in patient safety and promote the evidence-based policy and provide new opportunities for quality improvement.

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