Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40059870›Full record

ArticleFuture healthcare journal2025

Giving patients, families and staff a reliable voice in acute care: Expert guidance for implementation of Martha's Rule in UK hospitals.

John Welch, Jane Murkin, Eirian Edwards, Matthew Inada-Kim, Christian Subbe

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Future healthcare journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Patient and family activated escalation systems: a systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Healthcare on a burning planet.Future healthcare journal · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

John WelchUniversity College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR Central London Patient Safety Research Collaboration, London, UK.
Jane MurkinNHS England, London, UK.
Eirian EdwardsBetsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, London, UK.
Matthew Inada-KimHampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
Christian SubbeNorth Wales Medical School, Bangor University, London, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

'Failure to rescue' in patients with documented signs of deterioration results in an estimated five potentially avoidable deaths at each acute trust in England each month. One common cause is inattention to concerns of patients or their families about acute deterioration. Martha's Rule requires reliable methods for (1) patients or their families to escalate worries and concerns about deterioration and (2) to routinely input their understanding of their illness/wellness and trajectory into the health record. This paper sets out the rationale for these approaches. Following review with staff from the first wave of British units that have introduced Martha's Rule or similar systems, the authors suggest tested and evidence-based methods for implementation and describe gaps in current understanding of such systems. Importantly, the paper outlines answers to frequently voiced concerns about these sorts of methods and a set of suitable metrics for organisations to measure the impact of implementation on processes and outcomes in acute care.

Indexed as

Acute careDeteriorationFailure to rescueMartha's RulePatient voice

Identifiers

PMID40059870
PMCPMC11889965

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

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.