Being involved in an investigation

We aim to work with everyone affected by patient safety issues over the course of our investigations. We may do this in different ways, depending on who we are working with and what we are investigating.

Patients, families and carers

Our investigations do not replace any existing investigations or other processes that individual patients or families may use to help them address a patient safety concern. HSSIB investigations look at how patient safety incidents may occur across the wider healthcare system.

There are other organisations to contact if you want to raise a complaint or request an investigation into your experience. Our team can help signpost you to the most appropriate contact.

How we involve you

Involvement in our investigations covers the entire investigation process, and can include:

• Listening to concerns shared with us by patients, families, carers and advocates, when we select areas for investigation, to help us focus on the most serious issues.
• Working with patients and families, or representative groups, during our investigations to understand your experiences of care.
• Sharing our investigation reports for comment and feedback before we publish a final report, to help us check and challenge our findings, safety recommendations and other safety learning.

We will always ask how you want to work with us. Our investigators will work with you so that you know when a report is due to be published and support how you may want to be involved in this process.

Healthcare staff and organisations

Our investigations do not find blame or liability with individuals or organisations. Information shared with us is confidential and protected by law. We hope this will help people to feel comfortable sharing information with us to improve patient safety.

Understanding the experiences of staff helps us to focus on the wider issues that impact the ability of staff to deliver safe and effective patient care. Working with a wide range of organisations ensures that we consider the system-level factors that influence patient safety issues.

How we involve staff

Involvement in our investigations may vary depending on the type of investigation we are doing, and the many different healthcare roles. This can include:

• Speaking to our investigators about a specific patient safety event.
• Helping us to understand a normal working day and letting us observe work being done.
• Sharing information and data to help inform our investigations.
• Providing comment on our reports to help check and challenge our findings, safety recommendations, or safety learning.

How we involve organisations

Working with a wide range of stakeholder organisations helps us to understand the complex system factors that impact on patient safety issues, and the opportunities for change and improvement.

Where we have worked closely with organisations during our investigation this is stated in our report. We do not name local healthcare organisations in our reports but do indicate the type of organisations we have worked with (for example, a GP practice or an independent hospital). We do name national organisations that have assisted in our work and reflect the views shared by those organisations in our reports.

Draft HSSIB investigation reports are shared on consultation with organisations that have worked with us. They’re also shared with other national organisations that may have an interest in our reports. This is for comment to help us check and challenge our findings, safety recommendations, or safety observations.

Feedback

We will always ask for your feedback on how we have worked with you. This helps us to understand how we could improve our approach in the future. Please tell us about your experience of being involved in an investigation using our online feedback form.