Digital Innovation to Improve Patient Safety in Acute Mental Health Settings

Safety for patients and staff on acute adult mental health wards is a pressing issue in the UK and internationally. This chapter describes the background and delivery of a project to develop a digital monitoring tool to improve patient safety on adult acute mental health wards within the UK National Health Service (NHS). The learning objectives are to consider: tensions between different perspectives on ward safety; processes involved in developing a research design in which patients and staff are actively involved; and factors relevant to implementation of a digital safety intervention on mental health wards.

First, we explore mental health patient and staff perspectives, using data from qualitative interviews we conducted. Next, we discuss concepts relevant to improving safety on mental health wards, i.e. ward milieu; social contagion; patient involvement in safety interventions; and the potential of digital technology to help address ward safety. Finally, we connect theory to practice by outlining the development and evaluation of ‘WardSonar’, a theoretically based, digital, patient safety monitoring tool, which was developed with experience experts and prioritises patient perspectives. We conclude this chapter with a logic model that shows how patient safety theory can be applied in practice to improve outcomes.