Evaluation of management technologies for patient safety in the intensive care unit
Patient Safety. Quality Indicators, Health Care. Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. Systematic Reviews
Intensive care units (ICUs) present a complex socio-technical care context, with procedures and technologies that pose a high risk of harm to patients. Patient safety is a particularly important dimension of quality of care in ICUs, considering the high prevalence of preventable adverse events in the care setting. Interventions for monitoring and improving patient safety in ICUs are recommended and implemented by healthcare services without necessarily undergoing an in-depth evaluation of their quality and effectiveness. Therefore, this thesis aims to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of patient safety management technologies in intensive care units. The work is structured in two systematic review studies. The first study aims to identify and evaluate the validity of patient safety indicators used in the context of intensive care units and is registered on the PROSPERO platform under code CRD42024617125. The second study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis in Healthcare (HFMEA) on the safety of key care processes in the context of intensive care units and is registered under code CRD42020156530. The studies will search for original scientific articles published in the PubMed (Medline), Scopus, EMBASE (Elsevier), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, Cochrane Database, and PsycINFO databases. Articles will be selected and their data extracted by two reviewers in a paired and independent manner, with disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. The methodological quality assessment will be performed using appropriate risk of bias tools for each study type. If possible, a quantitative synthesis of the data (meta-analysis) will be performed for the main outcomes evaluated. The reliability of the evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). It is expected that these studies will contribute to the decision-making process of healthcare organizations in implementing strategic activities for patient safety management in intensive care units.