Healthcare patients and their families/carers who have been impacted by serious adverse patient safety events (SAPSE) are entitled to play a role in internal review processes that seek to understand how their harm occurred. By involving impacted consumers in adverse event reviews, a fuller understanding of contributing factors can be gained, which leads to more accurate and robust findings, and better system improvements.
Resources
In partnership with health services and consumers, we have developed a set of resources that can be used during the review process.
- Consumer involvement following a SAPSE: a 9-step guide
- Consumer & community fact sheet: What happens after patient harm
- Next Steps Pamphlet
Rachel's story
Rachel’s Story is an example of how close engagement between a health service and an impacted consumer added significant value to the review process, produced meaningful improvements, and restored the relationship between the health service and the consumer.