Multiple points of system failure underpin continuous subcutaneous infusion safety incidents in palliative care: A mixed methods analysis

Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

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This episode features Amy Brown (Marie Curie Research Centre, Division of Population Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. Swansea University Medical School, Swansea University, Swansea, UK)

What is already known about the topic?

The third World Health Organization Global Patient Safety Challenge ‘Medication without harm’, emphasises the need for improved infrastructure through better reporting practices and cross-organisational learning from adverse events and near misses.
Medication is implicated in one-fifth of serious palliative care patient safety incidents, with approximately 25% of these incidents involving continuous subcutaneous infusions.
Inadequate analysis of continuous subcutaneous infusions as safety-critical, risk-prone interventions dependent on complex structural and human factor issues is a lost opportunity for learning.

What this paper adds?

Continuous subcutaneous infusion incidents occur across all settings including the home, hospices and hospitals and particularly after the transfer of patients between settings with harm present in nearly three-quarters of reports.
Multiple points of system failure were identified in continuous subcutaneous infusion incident reports including monitoring and supply (405, 31%), administration (383, 29%) and prescribing (268, 20%); recurring contributory factors included discontinuity of care within and between care settings, inadequate time, inadequate staffing and unfamiliarity with protocols.
Narrative descriptions of psychological and social harm, alongside physical harm risk, are not being adequately recognised or responded to through existing approaches to measure harm in palliative care, hindering learning in practice

Implications for practice, theory, or policy

The structural changes needed to minimise harm and maximise safety in palliative care are likely to be replicated in other parts of the world where patient safety reporting practices are less well established, for example, shifting from focussing on lack of experience and competency at an individual practitioner-level to addressing deficits in working environments and infrastructures for care provision.
When patients move between care locations, more attention should be given to the timeliness and effective transfer of medication management (e.g. if someone is discharged from hospital to a care home that rarely uses continuous subcutaneous infusions for palliative care, this needs to be preceded by refreshing staff skills and ensuring they can access further community support if needed).
Professional training and further research are needed to increase quality of reporting of psychological and social harms (including for families and other stakeholders involved) to facilitate organisational learning and pinpoint precise targets for further improvement.

Full paper available from:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163241287639

If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:

[email protected]

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