Stakeholder safety communication: patient and family reports on safety risks in hospitals

Tom W. Reader

Journal of Risk Research, 2022, vol. 25, issue 7, 807-824

Abstract: Safety communication relates to the sharing of safety information within organizations in order to mitigate hazards and improve risk management. Although risk researchers have predominantly investigated employee safety communication behaviors (e.g. voice), a growing body of work (e.g. in healthcare, transport) indicates that public stakeholders also communicate safety information to organizations. To investigate the nature of stakeholder safety communication behaviors, and their possible contribution to organizational risk management, accounts from patients and families – recorded in a government public inquiry – about trying to report safety risks in an unsafe hospital were examined. Within the inquiry, 410 narrative accounts of patients and families engaging in safety communication behaviors (voicing concerns, writing complaints, and whistleblowing) were identified and analyzed. Typically, the aim of safety communication was to ensure hospital staff addressed safety risks that were apparent and impactful to patients and families (e.g. medication errors, clinical neglect), yet unnoticed or uncorrected by clinicians and administrators. However, the success of patient and family safety communication in ameliorating risk was variable, and problems in hospital safety culture (e.g. high workloads, downplaying safety problems) meant that information provided by patients and families was frequently not acted upon. Due to their distinct role as independent service-users, public stakeholders can potentially support organizational risk management through communicating on safety risks missed or not addressed by employees and managers. However, for this to happen, there must be capacity and openness within organizations for responding to safety communication from stakeholders.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2022.2061036 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:25:y:2022:i:7:p:807-824

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2022.2061036

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().