The grant was designated to improve the way the health system learns from the more than 500,000 reported events that can result in harm to people receiving care each year.

Lead researcher, Associate Professor Peter Hibbert said in partnership with four state health departments and the national government patient safety body, the project will develop and test evidence-based methods for healthcare organisations to improve and measure their response, analysis and learning from incidents, thereby reducing harm to patients.

Reported incidents can include infections, falls or problems with medical devices or medication. Some incidents cause minor harm to the patient, and a small number each year cause death. The cost to the health system is $4 billion or almost 10 per cent of Australian hospital expenditure.

“When patients are harmed, it is imperative that healthcare organisations respond to and learn from those events and prevent other patients suffering a similar incident,” Associate Professor Hibbert said.

“We will work closely with New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT to research current practices, test interventions that are occurring in health services, and undertake a world-first simulation trial using artificial intelligence."

Project partners are:

• Clinical Excellence Commission NSW
• Clinical Excellence Queensland
• Safer Care Victoria
• ACT Health
• the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

As well as Macquarie University, Chief Investigators from the University of New South Wales, University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Australian Catholic University will be involved in the research.

Contact Chrissy Clay for media enquiries and further information.