ReviewThe Milbank quarterly2013
Hospital board oversight of quality and patient safety: a narrative review and synthesis of recent empirical research.
Review in The Milbank quarterly, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Understanding healthcare professionals' responses to patient complaints in secondary and tertiary care in the UK: A systematic review and behavioural analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework.Health research policy and systems · 2024Pooled it
- The contribution of political skill to the implementation of health services change: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC health services research · 2021Pooled it
- Improving the governance of patient safety in emergency care: a systematic review of interventions.BMJ open · 2016Pooled it
- Supervision and Support for Advanced Practice Providers Entering Psychiatric Practice.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- An exploration of governance in teaching hospitals in the Netherlands focused on educational objectives.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Hospital governance accountability structure: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Involving Health Professionals in the Development of Quality and Safety Dashboards: Qualitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- The Special Measures for Quality and Challenged Provider Regimes in the English NHS: A Rapid Evaluation of a National Improvement Initiative for Failing Healthcare Organisations.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- Big Data Health Care Innovations: Performance Dashboarding as a Process of Collective Sensemaking.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- A Board Level Intervention to Develop Organisation-Wide Quality Improvement Strategies: Cost-Consequences Analysis in 15 Healthcare Organisations.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- Latent profile analysis of security among patients with COVID-19 infection in mobile cabin hospitals and its relationship with psychological capital.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Core Recommendations for Antifungal Stewardship: A Statement of the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2020Review
- How not to waste a crisis: a qualitative study of problem definition and its consequences in three hospitals.Journal of health services research & policy · 2019Article
- Explaining organisational responses to a board-level quality improvement intervention: findings from an evaluation in six providers in the English National Health Service.BMJ quality & safety · 2019Article
- Developing a hospital-wide quality and safety dashboard: a qualitative research study.BMJ quality & safety · 2018Article
- Important factors for effective patient safety governance auditing: a questionnaire survey.BMC health services research · 2018Article
- A systematic approach to develop a core set of parameters for boards of directors to govern quality of care in the ICU.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2018Article
- The use of patient feedback by hospital boards of directors: a qualitative study of two NHS hospitals in England.BMJ quality & safety · 2018Article
- Evaluation of the organisation and effectiveness of internal audits to govern patient safety in hospitals: a mixed-methods study.BMJ open · 2017Article
- Do Hospital Boards matter for better, safer, patient care?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextRecurring problems with patient safety have led to a growing interest in helping hospitals' governing bodies provide more effective oversight of the quality and safety of their services. National directives and initiatives emphasize the importance of action by boards, but the empirical basis for informing effective hospital board oversight has yet to receive full and careful review.
methodsThis article presents a narrative review of empirical research to inform the debate about hospital boards' oversight of quality and patient safety. A systematic and comprehensive search identified 122 papers for detailed review. Much of the empirical work appeared in the last ten years, is from the United States, and employs cross-sectional survey methods.
findingsRecent empirical studies linking board composition and processes with patient outcomes have found clear differences between high- and low-performing hospitals, highlighting the importance of strong and committed leadership that prioritizes quality and safety and sets clear and measurable goals for improvement. Effective oversight is also associated with well-informed and skilled board members. External factors (such as regulatory regimes and the publication of performance data) might also have a role in influencing boards, but detailed empirical work on these is scant.
conclusionsHealth policy debates recognize the important role of hospital boards in overseeing patient quality and safety, and a growing body of empirical research has sought to elucidate that role. This review finds a number of areas of guidance that have some empirical support, but it also exposes the relatively inchoate nature of the field. Greater theoretical and methodological development is required if we are to secure more evidence-informed governance systems and practices that can contribute to safer care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.