Our approach
Patient safety is the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with healthcare. Given the ageing population, complexity of patient illness and disease, advancements in technology, and workforce issues, patient safety is a growing concern for researchers, health services and policy makers alike.
Our research aims to improve patient safety by focusing on patient and carer involvement, progressing data-driven approaches to error and harm reduction, development of tools and resources for healthcare professionals, and evaluation of interventions. We have an extensive track record in this field, and our researchers have local, national and international collaborations and partnerships with leading patient safety and quality experts.
A selection of our key projects is listed below.
Patient feedback for safety improvement in Australian primary care
The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of patient-feedback on safety intervention in Australian primary care and to understand the implementation process and translatability of the patient reporting for safety improvement intervention.
Period: 2020–2023
Funding: Dean’s Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, Faculty of Health, Deakin University
DRH team members: Dr Andrea Hernan, Associate Professor Vincent Versace
DCMedsRec: reducing hospital readmission by enhanced My Health Record use in community pharmacy
This project describes a new and systematic method of supporting patients at discharge, reducing the risk of medication related readmissions by referring at-risk patients to community pharmacists post-discharge for medicines reconciliation and education. A randomised controlled trial methodology has been designed to evaluate its impact. It is the relatively recent widespread implementation of electronic health records that enables both the project to be delivered and a novel method of evaluation to be used.
Period: 2018–2019
Funding: Australian Digital Health Authority
DRH team members: Associate Professor Kevin Mc Namara
Patient measure of safety in primary care
Pilot study of an intervention to improve safety in rural Victoria
The aim of this feasibility trial was to implement the primary care patient measure of safety (PC PMOS) as a tool for safety improvement in Australian primary care. Patients from six practices completed the PC PMOS, and the practices then used this feedback to develop and implement specific safety interventions over a six-month period. The enablers, barriers, acceptability, practicability and scalability of the intervention were investigated in 2018–2019. The sustainability of the intervention was also explored in 2019–2020. This was one of the first reported patient-feedback on safety interventions in primary care.
Period: 2018–2019
Funding type: Western Alliance
DRH team members: Dr Andrea Hernan, Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Kevin McNamara, Mrs Hannah Beks, Dr Marely Binder
Partnered pharmacist medication charting program
An economic and implementation evaluation
Medication errors are a major source of adverse events in hospitals, which has negative impacts on both patient health, costs of treatment and length of stay. The initial Alfred hospital RCT of the Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting (PPMC) model of care - whereby patient medications are charted by a pharmacist in ED upon admission with physician collaboration and sign-off - resulted in considerable reductions to the rate of medication errors. The same PPMC model was then trialled in seven metropolitan and regional hospitals to determine the likely feasibility of scaling this up across Victoria, impact on length of stay, and the cost-effectiveness of the model overall compared with usual care.
Period: 2016–2018
Funding type: Department of Health and Human Services (Victoria)
DRH team members: Associate Professor Kevin McNamara, Mrs Hannah Beks
Primary care patient measure of safety (PC PMOS) validation study
The PC PMOS is a tool designed to capture patient feedback about the contributing factors to safety incidents in the primary care setting. The aim of this study was to undertake a validation study to determine its reliability and validity to produce a robust tool intended to improve safety in practice. The outcome of this study was the development of a reliable and valid 28-item PC PMOS tool that can be used to enhance or complement current data collection methods to identify and prevent error.
Period: 2015–2016
Funding type: Internally funded by NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre
DRH team members: Dr Andrea Hernan
Contact us
For more information about this research, please contact theme lead Dr Andrea Hernan.
Dr Andrea Hernan
Research Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty of Health
Email Dr Hernan