The research study, "'How Safe is Your Care?' Measurement and Monitoring of Safety Through the Eyes of Patients and their Caregivers," is being conducted by a team from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Sinai Health, and the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. It is being led by Drs. Lianne Jeffs, Kerry Kuluski, and G. Ross Baker, as well as Anne MacLaurin and Virginia Flintoft.

The Canadian Patient Safety Institute and its partners aim to use a new approach to patient safety that is grounded in the 5 dimensions of the Measurement and Monitoring Safety Framework (MMSF) and include the voice of patients, families and caregivers by answering the following questions:

1. How do patients, caregivers and providers experience safety in the health care system?
2. What role can patients, caregivers and providers play in helping us understand safety?
3. How can we create environments that support safer care experiences?

The Measurement and Monitoring of Safety Framework (MMSF) provides a broader view of safety. It is not just about the reduction of physical harm or managing risk. The framework challenges our assumptions in terms of patient safety and helps to shift our thinking away from what has happened in the past, to a new approach that moves us from the absence of harm to the presence of safety.

The MMSF includes the following five dimensions of safety with key questions:

1. Past harm - Has patient care been safe in the past?
2. Reliability - Are our clinical systems and processes reliable?
3. Sensitivity to operations - Is care safe today?
4. Anticipation and preparedness - Will care be safe in the future?
5. Integration and learning - Are we responding and improving?

Advisory Committee

The Canadian Patient Safety Institute and the research co-leads brought together leaders in the fields of patient safety, patient partnership, and the Measurement and Monitoring of Safety Framework to participate in an Advisory Committee. The Committee will advise the Research Team on processes, methodology and outputs associated with this work.

Committee Membership

Co-Chairs

• Dr. G. Ross Baker, University of Toronto
• Maaike Asselbergs, Patients for Patient Safety Canada
  

Members

• Susan Burnett, Co-Author of the Measurement and Monitoring Safety Framework
• Jane Carthey Co-Author of the Measurement and Monitoring Safety Framework
• Sarah Garrett, Co-Facilitator of the CPSI Measurement and Monitoring Safety Demonstration Project and Safety Improvement Project
• Kathy Kovacs Burns, Patients for Patient Safety Canada
• Susan Brien, Health Quality Ontario
• Markus Lahtinen, Health Quality Council Alberta
• Jenny Lacroix, Canadian Institute of Health Information
• Lena Cuthbertson, British Columbia Ministry of Health
• Rachel Martens, IMAGINE
• Anne MacLaurin, Canadian Patient Safety Institute
• Virginia Flintoft, Canadian Patient Safety Institute
  
• Wayne Miller, Canadian Patient Safety Institute
  
• Michelina Mancuso, New Brunswick Health Council
  

Researchers

• Dr. Lianne Jeffs, Sinai Health System
• Dr. Kerry Kuluski, Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners
  

Recruitment

Please consider participating in either a face-to-face / telephone/ videoconference interview or a focus group. During the interview (or focus group), you will be asked to answer questions about how you currently define and experience safety in the healthcare system. A single interview should take 45-60 minutes, while a focus group is 90 minutes.

If you are interested in participating in the study, either in an interview or a focus group, please contact Frances Bruno, Research Coordinator at Frances.Bruno@sinaihealth.ca or 416-461-8252, ext. 2953.

For further questions about the study, you can contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. Lianne Jeffs at Lianne.Jeffs@sinaihealth.ca or 416-522-1052.