Safeguarding Health and Safety in Healthcare Settings

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Evaluate the applicability of human fallibility to a situation of risk in the workplace.

2. Carry out a risk assessment in a healthcare setting and assess the efficacy of a proposed risk management plan.

3. Analyse the robustness of a system for ensuring safety in a health and social care environment.

4. Understand and apply knowledge of a ‘just’ culture to building a workplace culture of openness and accountability.

An excellent answer will have the following attributes:

· Exceptional understanding of human errors and their detection and recovery approaches

· Exceptional understanding of perceptions of unsafe acts such as person and system models

· Exceptional evaluation of system approach and person approach supported with relevant examples.

· Appreciation of openness and transparency to manage errors and exceptional knowledge of application of Just Culture

· Exceptional demonstration of application of knowledge of the process of achieving organisational justice.

· Exceptionally well structured and well-presented arguments

· Correct use of English language

· Referencing in correct Harvard Style

First Class

All components will have been submitted, and the remaining criteria will be as noted for the 80%+ marking band. However, in one or two areas, the submission will be open to minor criticism

· A very good understanding of human errors and their detection and recovery approaches

· A very good understanding of perceptions of unsafe acts such as person and system models

· A good evaluation of system approach and person approach supported with relevant examples.

· Appreciation of openness and transparency to manage errors and good knowledge of application of Just Culture

· Exceptional demonstration of application of knowledge of the process of achieving organisational justice.

· Clear and logical structure showing progression of ideas and argument

· There may be some minor mistakes in presentation or referencing.

HIQA aims to safeguard people and improve the safety and quality of health and social care services across its full range of functions. HIQA’s mandate to date extends across a specified range of public, private and voluntary sector services. Reporting to the Minister for Health and engaging with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, HIQA has statutory responsibility for:

· Setting Standards for Health and Social Services — Developing person centred standards, based on evidence and best international practice, for health and social care services in Ireland.

· Regulation — Registering and inspecting designated centres.

· Monitoring Children’s Services — Monitoring and inspecting children’s social services.

· Monitoring Healthcare Safety and Quality — Monitoring the safety and quality of health services and investigating as necessary serious concerns about the health and welfare of people who use these services.

· Health Technology Assessment — Providing advice that enables the best outcome for people who use our health service and the best use of resources by evaluating the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of drugs, equipment, diagnostic techniques and health promotion and protection activities.

· Health Information — Advising on the efficient and secure collection and sharing of health information, setting standards, evaluating information resources and publishing information about the delivery and performance of Ireland’s health and social care services.

Background to the Inspection

In 2017, HIQA commenced a revised monitoring programme against the National Standards. The aim of this revised monitoring programme is to assess aspects of the governance, management and implementation of designated programmes to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections in hospitals using unannounced visits. A visit was made to CWIUH in 2017. The Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital, Dublin (CWIUH) is an established hospital in the south inner city providing a range of maternity, gynaecology, neonatal, and reproductive health services to over 9500 patients a year, with approximately 9000 infant deliveries in 2010. It has approximately 950 staff including medical, midwifery, nursing, allied services and support staff. It is also a teaching hospital for medical and midwifery students. CWIUH Challenges / Scale of the Problem Prior to 2008 a significant number of deaths related to hospital acquired infections occurred annually, evenly affecting staff and patients. Between 70 to 90 were reported annually between 2004 and 2014

· The causes were many and different solutions had to be identified and managed for each. These had to be addressed in consultation with appropriate staff, managers, architects and builders etc.

· There was a lack of appreciation of the scale of the problem, and how easy it would be to stop or reduce the number of incidents.

· There was no one-stop source of information on how to prevent them.