The active patient: Voicing and correcting behaviors by patients and families to ensure safety in healthcare organizations.
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| Title: | The active patient: Voicing and correcting behaviors by patients and families to ensure safety in healthcare organizations. |
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| Authors: | Reader, Tom W1 (AUTHOR) t.w.reader@lse.ac.uk, Gillespie, Alex1,2 (AUTHOR) a.t.gillespie@lse.ac.uk |
| Source: | Safety Science. Jan2026, Vol. 193, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p. |
| Subjects: | Patient safety, Patient participation, Patient advocacy, Health facilities, Safety regulations, Behavior modification, Safety |
| Abstract: | • This study explores how patients and families ensure treatment safety in hospital. • It finds them to prevent safety incidents through voicing and correcting behaviors. • These behaviors ensure that safety issues missed or ignored by hospitals are fixed. • Yet staff sometimes rebuff 'active patients', and thus lose opportunities to avert harm. • The study shows how non-employees can be a key influence on safety in organizations. Healthcare research increasingly observes that patients and families can be highly active in trying to prevent medical accidents. However, the safety literature lacks a model of these behaviors. Addressing this gap would not only advance understanding on how patients and families contribute to healthcare safety, but also provide a general framework for studying how non-employee stakeholders such as citizens and service-users influence safety outcomes in other organizational contexts. Therefore, the current study aimed to establish a model of the behaviors used by patients and families to prevent accidents and ensure safety whilst in hospital. Using a mixed qualitative-quantitative research design, we analyzed 1,857 healthcare complaints submitted by patients and families to UK hospitals reporting poor treatment experiences. Our analysis focused upon reports within the complaints of healthcare users engaging in (1) voicing behaviors to raise concerns about safety with staff and (2) correcting behaviors to directly resolve safety issues. Approximately three quarters of complaints reported patients and families having engaged in voicing and correcting behaviors, with them often doing so to ensure the resolution of missed and emerging safety problems. The behaviors contributed to hospital safety outcomes through helping staff to spot and resolve errors and hazards, intervening to ensure that safety standards were maintained, and bypassing teams and hospitals when they were judged as too unsafe. The study adds to the literature by establishing a framework for studying how the behaviors of non-employee stakeholders in healthcare and other domains contribute to organisational safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Safety Science is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: egs DbLabel: Engineering Source An: 189035619 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The active patient: Voicing and correcting behaviors by patients and families to ensure safety in healthcare organizations. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Reader%2C+Tom+W%22">Reader, Tom W</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<i> t.w.reader@lse.ac.uk</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Gillespie%2C+Alex%22">Gillespie, Alex</searchLink><relatesTo>1,2</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<i> a.t.gillespie@lse.ac.uk</i> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Safety+Science%22">Safety Science</searchLink>. Jan2026, Vol. 193, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Patient+safety%22">Patient safety</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Patient+participation%22">Patient participation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Patient+advocacy%22">Patient advocacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Health+facilities%22">Health facilities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Safety+regulations%22">Safety regulations</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Behavior+modification%22">Behavior modification</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Safety%22">Safety</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: • This study explores how patients and families ensure treatment safety in hospital. • It finds them to prevent safety incidents through voicing and correcting behaviors. • These behaviors ensure that safety issues missed or ignored by hospitals are fixed. • Yet staff sometimes rebuff 'active patients', and thus lose opportunities to avert harm. • The study shows how non-employees can be a key influence on safety in organizations. Healthcare research increasingly observes that patients and families can be highly active in trying to prevent medical accidents. However, the safety literature lacks a model of these behaviors. Addressing this gap would not only advance understanding on how patients and families contribute to healthcare safety, but also provide a general framework for studying how non-employee stakeholders such as citizens and service-users influence safety outcomes in other organizational contexts. Therefore, the current study aimed to establish a model of the behaviors used by patients and families to prevent accidents and ensure safety whilst in hospital. Using a mixed qualitative-quantitative research design, we analyzed 1,857 healthcare complaints submitted by patients and families to UK hospitals reporting poor treatment experiences. Our analysis focused upon reports within the complaints of healthcare users engaging in (1) voicing behaviors to raise concerns about safety with staff and (2) correcting behaviors to directly resolve safety issues. Approximately three quarters of complaints reported patients and families having engaged in voicing and correcting behaviors, with them often doing so to ensure the resolution of missed and emerging safety problems. The behaviors contributed to hospital safety outcomes through helping staff to spot and resolve errors and hazards, intervening to ensure that safety standards were maintained, and bypassing teams and hospitals when they were judged as too unsafe. The study adds to the literature by establishing a framework for studying how the behaviors of non-employee stakeholders in healthcare and other domains contribute to organisational safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Safety Science is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=egs&AN=189035619 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1016/j.ssci.2025.107026 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 1 StartPage: N.PAG Subjects: – SubjectFull: Patient safety Type: general – SubjectFull: Patient participation Type: general – SubjectFull: Patient advocacy Type: general – SubjectFull: Health facilities Type: general – SubjectFull: Safety regulations Type: general – SubjectFull: Behavior modification Type: general – SubjectFull: Safety Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The active patient: Voicing and correcting behaviors by patients and families to ensure safety in healthcare organizations. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Reader, Tom W – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Gillespie, Alex IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Text: Jan2026 Type: published Y: 2026 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 09257535 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 193 Titles: – TitleFull: Safety Science Type: main |
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