TY - JOUR
T1 - Next-of-kin involvement in regulatory investigations of adverse events that caused patient death
T2 - A process evaluation (Part II: The Inspectors' Perspective)
AU - Wiig, Siri
AU - Schibevaag, Lene
AU - Zachrisen, Rannveig Tvete
AU - Hannisdal, Einar
AU - Anderson, Janet E.
AU - Haraldseid-Driftland, Cecilie
N1 - Funding Information:
The evaluation is funded by the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Objective: The aimof the study was to explore regulatory inspectors' experiences with a new method for next-of-kin involvement in investigation of adverse events causing patient death. A resilient healthcare perspective is used as the theoretical foundation. Methods: The study design was a qualitative process evaluation of the new involvement method in 2 Norwegian counties. Next of kin, who had lost a close family member in an adverse event, were invited to a 2-hour faceto- facemeetingwith the inspectors. Data collection involved 3 focus group interviews with regulatory inspectors and observation (20 hours) of the meetings (2017-2018). Datawere analyzed by a thematic content analysis. Results: Next-of-kin involvement informed the investigations by additional and new information about the adverse events and by different versions of the investigators' earlier obtained information, such as time sequences, what happened and how, and who were involved. Inspectors considered next of kin as a key source of information that contributed to improve the quality of the investigation. The downside was that the involvement method increased work load and could challenge the principle of equal treatment in regulatory practice. Conclusions: Involvement of next of kin in regulatory investigation of adverse events causing patient death contributes to a better understanding of work as done in clinical practice and contributes to strengthen the learning potential in resilience.
AB - Objective: The aimof the study was to explore regulatory inspectors' experiences with a new method for next-of-kin involvement in investigation of adverse events causing patient death. A resilient healthcare perspective is used as the theoretical foundation. Methods: The study design was a qualitative process evaluation of the new involvement method in 2 Norwegian counties. Next of kin, who had lost a close family member in an adverse event, were invited to a 2-hour faceto- facemeetingwith the inspectors. Data collection involved 3 focus group interviews with regulatory inspectors and observation (20 hours) of the meetings (2017-2018). Datawere analyzed by a thematic content analysis. Results: Next-of-kin involvement informed the investigations by additional and new information about the adverse events and by different versions of the investigators' earlier obtained information, such as time sequences, what happened and how, and who were involved. Inspectors considered next of kin as a key source of information that contributed to improve the quality of the investigation. The downside was that the involvement method increased work load and could challenge the principle of equal treatment in regulatory practice. Conclusions: Involvement of next of kin in regulatory investigation of adverse events causing patient death contributes to a better understanding of work as done in clinical practice and contributes to strengthen the learning potential in resilience.
KW - Adverse events
KW - Death
KW - Next of kin
KW - Regulatory inspections
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120697404&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000634
DO - 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000634
M3 - Article
C2 - 31651541
AN - SCOPUS:85120697404
SN - 1549-8417
VL - 17
SP - e1707-e1712
JO - Journal of Patient Safety
JF - Journal of Patient Safety
IS - 8
ER -