Pilot study analysing NRLS patient safety data in respiratory support, NIV and pneumonia

BTS has completed a new type of QI project involving patient safety data from the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS), with the aim of identifying trends and informing future quality improvement initiatives. NRLS is a confidential database that contains all patient safety incidents reported by healthcare organisations or individuals in England. A pilot for this project began in 2023, involving volunteers from the BTS Quality Improvement Committee reviewing a dataset of patient safety incidents relating to respiratory support, NIV and pneumonia.

The objective of this work was to test whether, by choosing respiratory specific free text search terms for NRLS data, it was a) viable and b) a useful way to identify important issues and areas for improvement in the quality of respiratory care. If this was possible, the plan would be to identify other areas of respiratory practice where this approach could be used by BTS in the future.

A report on methods, findings, and recommendations can be found below.