Restorative just culture significantly improves stakeholder inclusion, second victim experiences and quality of recommendations in incident responses

Abstract

Objective: Matching safety and quality improvements to the complexity of healthcare, Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services implemented a new response to clinical incidents: the Gold Coast Clinical Incident Response Framework (GC-CIRF). It utilises a Restorative Just Culture (RJC) framework and Safety II principles. This paper evaluates its impact.
Methods: Staff surveys measured perceptions of just culture and second victim experiences. Quality of recommendations were compared before and after implementation. For the 19 incidents that occurred after the implementation of GC-CIRF, audits of the review processes were undertaken, measuring several components.
Results: Results show significant improvement in staff perceptions of just culture and second victim experiences. Review of incident review data showed several shifts in line with Safety II and RJC. The process audit demonstrated inclusion of a broad range of stakeholders, and significant improvements in the quality and strength of recommendations.
Conclusions: Embedding RJC and Safety II concepts into the incident review process is associated with improved measures of culture and review outputs. The integration of Safety II concepts and support of cultural shifts will require further work and committed leadership at all levels.