ArticlePloS one2025
Developing a quality and safety surveillance system: A protocol for a realist review and synthesis of the literature.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient harm as a result of unsafe care remains a growing global health concern, and traditional efforts prioritising tracking errors and voluntary reporting to detect adverse events result in very low error detection rates. In attempting to address this, some countries have developed patient safety surveillance systems where several data sources are combined and interrogated to detect errors and deterioration as well as to highlight good practices. The development of such systems requires overcoming various technological, executive, financial, political, and behavioral challenges. The process of developing quality and safety surveillance systems is an important one that is worthy of research that enables the sharing of learning with countries embarking on the development of such a system.
aimThis is the protocol of the realist review that aims to develop a programme theory that explores the underlying mechanisms and processes for developing a quality and safety surveillance system in healthcare settings.
designThis paper presents the research protocol for the quality and safety surveillance system development. The realist synthesis method will be used to synthesize the evidence in the literature.
methodsInitial programme theory will be developed based on a literature review, stakeholder consultations with the programme designers and developers, project meetings, the theory of change model that underpins the programme, and an understanding of systems theory to identify the context and mechanisms that cause quality and safety surveillance systems to succeed or fail in general healthcare settings. Three-phase iterative searches of PubMed, PsycInfo, Central, CINAHL, and Grey literature will be conducted. The studies in any setting and for any patient group will be included. The snowball technique will also be used to search the reference list of the related studies. The search period ranges from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2023. Results will be reported following RAMESES and PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
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