IntroductionInspections are widely used in health care as a means to improve the health services delivered to patients. Despite their widespread use, there is little evidence of their effect. The mechanisms for how inspections can promote change are poorly understood. In this study, we use a national inspection campaign of sepsis detection and initial treatment in hospitals as case to: (1) Explore how inspections affect the involved organizations. (2) Evaluate what effect external inspections have on the process of delivering care to patients, measured by change in indicators reflecting how sepsis detection and treatment is carried out. (3) Evaluate whether external inspections affect patient outcomes, measured as change in the 30-day mortality rate and length of hospital stay.Methods and analysisThe intervention that we study is inspections of sepsis detection and treatment in hospitals. The intervention will be rolled out sequentially during 12 months to 24 hospitals. Our effect measures are change on indicators related to the detection and treatment of sepsis, the 30-day mortality rate and length of hospital stay. We collect data from patient records at baseline, before the inspections, and at 8 and 14 months after the inspections. We use logistic regression models and linear regression models to compare the various effect measurements between the intervention and control periods. All the models will include time as a covariate to adjust for potential secular changes in the effect measurements during the study period. We collect qualitative data before and after the inspections, and we will conduct a thematic content analysis to explore how inspections affect the involved organisations.Ethics and disseminationThe study has obtained ethical approval by the Regional Ethics Committee of Norway Nord and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority. It is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT02747121). Results will be reported in international peer-reviewed journals.Trial RegistrationNCT02747121; Pre-results.

Background: There is a gap in the literature regarding what takes place between the announcement of a regulatory intervention, such as an external inspection of a health care organisation, and the inspecting body's site visit. This study aimed to explore inspecting bodies' expectations of how inspected organisations should prepare before an external inspection and to elucidate how inspected health care organisations prepare before site visits. Methods: This qualitative study was based on data from 17 group interviews with a total of 75 participants representing inspection teams, organisation leaders and clinicians in inspected health care organisations. The data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. Results: We identified two approaches to how the inspection teams expected that the inspected organisations should prepare before site visits. In the first approach the inspection teams did not expect any improvement activities to be initiated during this period and focused on identifying inadequacies that the inspected organisations should subsequently improve. In the second approach the inspection teams expected organisations to review their own practices and begin improvement activities if necessary. The inspected organisations responded in different ways to an upcoming site visit, and the organisations' leaders were important in determining which activities would be initiated. Organisations in which leaders involved clinicians in assessing care delivery tended to initiate action to improve and expected inspection teams to assess their ongoing improvement work and provide guidance on further improvements. Leaders who did not involve clinicians in assessing the quality of care tended to perceive the current quality of care as adequate on the basis of reviewing written guidelines. They did not initiate action to improve care delivery apart from updating written guidelines describing how care should be delivered, and they expected the inspection team to confirm that their current practices were in line with the guidelines and external standards. Conclusions: To promote anticipatory effects in inspected organisations, inspecting bodies should stress the importance of assessing clinical practice and involving frontline clinical staff and leaders in the assessment and in improvement work before the site visit.

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PurposeTrust plays an important role in the organisation of healthcare services. In Norway, the establishment of mandatory municipal acute wards with 24 h inpatient services introduces a new unit into the healthcare system. This article discusses how this new health care service succeeds in building trust with patients and among healthcare workers.Design/methodology/approachThe article is an in-depth case study of a single, exemplary inter-municipal acute ward. The study draws on interviews with COPD patients, the leader and doctors at the ward. The study also includes observations of daily work at the municipal acute ward. Moreover, administrators and healthcare workers at related healthcare institutions have been interviewed. Data were analysed using a qualitative method.FindingsThe study reveals that trust is built in complex relations and that it has both individual and systemic factors. The practices employed in the daily treatment and care of patients and in encounters between health care personnel and patients are important trust-building processes; however, these processes depend on structures and routines that promote efficient and adequate inter-organisational communication and patient-oriented procedures.Practical implicationsThe study provides insight into how trust dynamics work on multiple organisational levels and how they depend on both individual and systemic factors. Additionally, the study may provide a picture of the importance of trust in organising healthcare services in the future.Originality/valueLessons regarding trust building inspired by data from a case-study care institution can be applied in different care settings and countries.

ObjectiveInspections and other forms of external assessment may contribute to positive changes in the health services, but the mechanisms of such change remain unclear. We did a study to explore how external inspections may foster clinical improvement in hospitals.DesignFocus group study.SettingStatutory inspections of sepsis treatment in hospital emergency departments in Norway.ParticipantsClinicians, managers and inspection teams involved with the inspections of sepsis treatment in emergency departments at four different hospitals. Twelve focus group interviews were carried out, with a total of 47 participants.ResultsThree themes emerged as central for understanding how the inspections could contribute to clinical improvement in the emergency departments: (1) increasing awareness about the need to improve the quality of care by providing data on clinical performance, (2) building acceptance for improvement through professional credibility and focus on clinical practice, and (3) fostering leadership commitment.ConclusionOur findings suggest that the inspections have the potential to enhance hospital management and staff’s understanding of complicated care processes and help strengthen the organisational commitment to bring about systemic quality improvements.