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What’s the association between a culture of openness among staff and subsequent patient mortality? An interesting study to be posted soon explored this relationship.

Thanks to sidneydekker.com for flagging this paper during the recent Global Safety Innovation Summit 2024.

Openness represents an “environment in which communication among patients, staff members, and managers is open and transparent”, and where staff can freely speak up if they see something that may negatively affect a patient, or question authority.

Evaluating data from 137 English hospital systems from 2012-14, they found that:

·        Hospital-level mortality indicator data was lower in hospitals with higher levels of openness among staff

·        When adjusted for hospital operating capacity, a one-point increase in the standardised openness score was associated with a 6.48% reduction in hospital mortality rates.

Authors: Toffolutti, V., & Stuckler, D. (2019). Health Affairs, 38(5), 844-850.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05303

Sidney’s site: https://sidneydekker.com/

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_whats-the-association-between-a-culture-activity-7169462903375380480-95_s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop