The practice of incident reporting and management: current challenges and opportunities for mental health trusts in England
The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
ISSN: 1755-6228
Article publication date: 21 April 2023
Issue publication date: 4 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
New patient safety frameworks are being implemented to improve the impact of incident reporting and management across the National Health Service (NHS) in England. This study aims to examine the current practices in this domain of patient safety in a sample of mental health trusts, a setting in which limitations in the current practice of serious incident management have been reported. The authors present key recommendations to maximise the opportunities to improve current incident reporting and management practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethical approval for the study was granted. A Web-based questionnaire was designed to examine current practices concerning incident reporting and management. It was refined based on consultation. Patient safety incident managers within mental health trusts in England were recruited. Twenty-nine mental health trusts responded, from a total of 51. The questionnaire study data were analysed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
Findings
Current approaches used to report and manage incidents have been established and variation in practice demonstrated. A key finding for attention is that the training and education that investigators of serious incidents receive falls short of the recommended minimum national standard of 15 h, with a sample mean of 10.3 h and median of 8.0 h.
Originality/value
Recommendations at a local and national level are presented, which, if implemented, can maximise the impact of incident reporting and management practices in mental health trusts. Future qualitative research is indicated, to understand the perceptual experience and meaning behind the findings across a wider group of stakeholders.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the contributions of the 29 mental health trusts who responded to our survey.
The authors thank James Partington, Quality Surveillance Specialist, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, for the statistical guidance provided.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Wood, D., Robinson, C., Nathan, R. and McPhillips, R. (2023), “The practice of incident reporting and management: current challenges and opportunities for mental health trusts in England”, The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 18 No. 3, https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-05-2022-0038, omitted the wording ‘The supplementary material for this article can be found online’. This error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
Wood, D., Robinson, C., Nathan, R. and McPhillips, R. (2023), "The practice of incident reporting and management: current challenges and opportunities for mental health trusts in England", The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 248-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-05-2022-0038
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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