King’s Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre

King's Patient Safety and Service Quality (PSSQ) Research Centre is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It investigates ways of improving safety and services at King’s and other healthcare organisations around the country, to benefit patients everywhere. Our team of doctors, nurses, researchers and other experts researches ways of reducing risk and improving patient care.

King’s PSSQ is one of only two centres of its kind in the UK and was set up by a working partnership combining the expertise of senior staff at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (part of the University of London).

What research do we do?

We look at how services are organised and delivered, studying safety and quality practices in the healthcare sector as well as drawing on knowledge and best practice from other industries. To do this, we have put together a team of highly experienced NHS professionals and academic experts from across the social sciences.

Innovations

How can the NHS safely introduce and manage new technologies? Can services be organised differently to improve quality and safety for patients? We are looking at continuity of care and the patient journey, and the management of complications in areas such as maternity and general medicine.

Organisational governance

How does an organisation ensure it provides safe, high-quality care? We are examining the systems and processes used, including how to improve infection control and medication safety.

Risk

Which risk management methods are the most effective? How do staff and patients communicate about risk? How do healthcare practitioners evaluate risk and what tools do they need to help them? We are studying how organisations identify and manage risks, and how they perceive and communicate it.

Workforce

How does the way staff are managed and supported affect their attitudes, behaviour and the quality of care they provide? We are investigating how bullying and harassment, temporary contracts and induction processes can affect patient care.

How can you get involved?

As secondees

If you are a member of staff you can take part in our rolling secondment programme. We have up to six managers, clinical and clerical staff from the Trust working with us each year. Their first-hand knowledge of NHS staff combined with researchers’ specialised academic knowledge is already producing valuable results and building our research capacity.

As participants

NHS staff and patients are closely involved with our research, giving us permission to examine and analyse clinical notes or other records as part of larger anonymous group surveys, or agreeing to be interviewed one to one by our research staff. This involvement is entirely voluntary and only carried out with your full consent; we work to a strict code of anonymity.

As partners

There are a number of ways for partners to get involved: you can become a research advisor for our projects or a committee representative, or join our Patient and Public Involvement group, which gives us regular feedback on our research.

Accountability

A steering group oversees our work. It is chaired by Tim Smart, Chief Executive at King’s, and includes representatives from Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the local Primary Care Trusts, and patient/public representatives. We also report annually to the NIHR.

We operate within the Department of Health’s Research Governance Framework to ensure our research is conducted to a high standard, with appropriate ethical approval. In addition, all our work is subject to academic peer review both within the university and by an international Scientific Advisory Board.