Improving Hospital Safety with Family and Patient Reporting Through a Multilingual Mobile Tool and Education

What this Trial Is About

Hospitals often rely on voluntary incident reporting by clinical staff to examine safety, but this captures only a small fraction of events and misses many errors, especially among vulnerable groups like patients with language barriers. Patients and families are attentive partners in care who can identify safety issues that go unreported. To improve hospital safety, researchers are studying a new communication intervention designed with families, nurses, physicians, and hospital leaders to better engage families in reporting safety concerns. The intervention includes three parts a multilingual mobile reporting tool that prompts families to share safety concerns via email, text, or QR code education for families and staff and a process for sharing family reports with the hospital to address systemic issues. This approach is being tested in a randomized controlled trial across four diverse hospitals, comparing the new intervention to usual care without the family reporting tool. Participants include patients, families, caregivers, and hospital employees on study units. Researchers will collect data on medical errors, hospital experience, safety climate, patient activation, and family-reported safety concerns during hospital stays, typically about seven days. The trial aims to assess the interventions effectiveness in improving error detection, reducing disparities in reporting, and understanding factors that support successful use. Study participation includes regular safety assessments and monitoring from randomization through hospital discharge.

Patients and Families Improving Safety in Hospitals by Actively Reporting Experiences