An important background for the establishment of Ukom was an initiative from next of kin who unexpectedly lost a loved one while they were hospitalized. Afterwards, the families called for better information about what led to these deaths. They also felt that they were not adequately cared for by the healthcare services after losing their loved ones. They questioned the healthcare system's ability to learn and improve following serious incidents and called for an independent commission to investigate the underlying causes of serious events in the healthcare system at a systemic level. Therefore, the perspective of next of kin is not only an important aspect of Ukom’s work but also a central reason for its creation.
The goal of this report is to summarize how involvement and care of next of kin is presented in a selection of Ukom`s investigations. It is also a goal to highlight how patient safety can be strengthened by including the insight, experience, and perspectives of next of kin during a treatment process, as well as to shed light on areas for improvement within the healthcare services. For those involved in a serious incident, participating in improvement efforts afterwards can also have a therapeutic function.
Knowledge from next of kin is essential for gaining a comprehensive picture of what can affect patient and user safety. In addition to professional knowledge and safety and improvement knowledge, the knowledge of both patients/users and next of kin is necessary to achieve a safe, high-quality service.
In our investigations, we have found that if healthcare services fail to include the perspectives of next of kin in patient treatment, patient safety may be compromised. This summary focuses on how the healthcare system has:
- Involved and listened to next of kin in decision-making before serious incidents occur, such as treatment choices or decisions on whether the patient should undergo further assessment.
- Managed to care for next of kin after a serious incident.
- Involved next of kin in internal reviews for learning following serious incidents.
In this report, we first describe common findings related to relative involvement from our previously published reports. Then, we elaborate on each of the findings with examples and recommendations from these reports.
The translation from Norwegian to English is based in AI. Ukom has reviewed, edited and quality assured the translation