Table 1 Table of study characteristics
Author, year and country | Study aims | Surveillance description | Study design | Inpatient setting | Sample (including control group) | Lived experience involvement | MMAT quality rating | Conflicts of interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barrera et al. 2020 [47] Country: England | Establish whether it is safe to conduct nursing observations remotely from the nursing office using VBPMM. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Service improvement project/feasibility study Pre-post design with a concurrent control period in the initial implementation phase, where VBPMM-assisted observations were compared to treatment as usual. | An adult acute male inpatient mental health ward. | Patients, staff and relatives Patients n = not reported Staff n = 18 Relatives n = 10 Total n = unknown | Yes | Low | Yes |
Bowers et al. 2002 [48] Country: England | Describe current safety and security measures used on acute psychiatric wards in London, and to explore the relationships between them. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV for security (location on ward not specified); brand(s) not specified | Quantitative survey | Acute psychiatric wards in London. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | N = 87 hospital wards | No | Low | No |
Buckley et al. (2024) [41] Country: England | Adapt a previous health economic model with clinical data collected from additional NHS mental health trusts, and to present the results in an accessible format to inform healthcare decision makers. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Economic analysis study utilising a cost calculator approach (using observational data collected across five English NHS mental health trusts) | Acute adult inpatient mental health and older adult inpatient mental health services across five mental health NHS trusts which wished to remain anonymous. | Patients and staff n = not reported | No | Low | Yes |
Clark et al. (2021) [40] Country: England | Primary aim: Improve the quality of physical health monitoring by making accurate vital sign measurements more frequently available. Secondary aim: Explore the clinical experience of integrating a technological innovation with routine clinical care. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Proof of concept quality improvement project | A women’s PICU in a hospital in South London. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Staff, patients and carers Patients in pre-implementation focus group n = 12 Patients surveyed post-surveillance in seclusion n = 12 Carers surveyed post surveillance in seclusion n = 6 Staff n = not reported; Total n = unknown | Yes | Low | Yes |
Curtis et al. (2013) [49] Country: England | Evaluate a purpose built inpatient mental health care facility, the “New Hospital”. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV cameras in common areas; brand(s) not specified | Qualitative evaluation | The “New Hospital” had 318 inpatient beds to care for patients with acute psychiatric illnesses, geriatric conditions, learning difficulties, and a significant number of forensic cases. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Staff, patients, family and carers Results are reported from 19 group or individual meetings, representing a subset from a total of 40 conversations in the wider study. It is unclear why this subset was selected Number of participants = not reported | No | High | No |
Dewa et al. 2023 [32] Country: England | Conduct a qualitative service evaluation to explore both staff and patient perspectives on the use of Oxehealth technology in a high-secure forensic psychiatric hospital. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Qualitative study | Broadmoor Hospital in South England within West London NHS Trust—an adult high-secure forensic inpatient service. | Staff and patients Patients n = 12 Staff n = 12 Total n = 24 | Yes | High | No |
Due et al. 2012 [50] Country: Australia | Explore the potential relationship between surveillance techniques, the enactment of security measures, and patient violence in mental health wards. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV or surveillance cameras in all areas on each ward except bedrooms and bathrooms; brand(s) not specified | Ethnographic case study | The mental health unit of a large public hospital in South Australia. The buildings comprised both a secure or “locked” ward, and an open ward. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Patients, staff, visitors | No | High | No |
Ellis et al. 2019 [44] Country: England | Conduct a pilot project to evaluate whether issuing BWCs to mental health ward nurses was associated with a reduction in violence and aggression in recorded incident interventions. | BWCs; brand was Reveal trading as Calla | A quasi-experimental repeated measures design | Seven West London Trust mental health adult wards, including: two wards for local services admissions (male and female), a PICU (male), a low secure forensic ward (male), medium secure ward (female) and two enhanced medium secure wards (both female). | Staff and patients Staff who completed the pre-pilot questionnaire n = 63 Patient n = not reported Total n = unknown | No | Low | Yes |
Foye et al. (2024a) [51] Country: England | Explore the perspectives of patients, mental health staff, and senior management to understand the practical and ethical issues related to the implementation of BWCs. | BWCs; brand was Reveal trading as Calla | Qualitative study | Five NHS acute adult inpatient wards across England. | Staff and patients Total n = 64 Patients via NHS services n = 24 Staff via NHS services n = 25 Service users via social media n = 9 Mental health nursing directors n = 6 | Yes | High | No |
Foye et al. (2024b) [52] Country: England | Evaluate the implementation of BWCs on two inpatient mental health wards, including the impact on incidents, the acceptability to staff and patients, the sustainability of the resource use and ability to manage the use of BWCs on these wards. | BWCs; brand was Reveal trading as Calla | Mixed methods study with a repeated measures design | One adult acute ward and one adult psychiatric intensive care unit in a London mental health trust. | Staff and patients Total n = 22 Interviewed patients n = 5 Interviewed staff members n = 17 | Yes | Low | No |
Greer et al. 2019 [53] Country: England | Explore the attitudes of staff towards passive remote monitoring technology for risk of aggression in inpatient forensic mental health services, with a focus on the potential benefits that this technology could provide and barriers to implementation. | Wearable sensors; brands were E4 (Empatica Srl) and Everion (Biovotion Ltd) | Qualitative study using focus groups | Medium-secure forensic mental health service in South London, UK. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Staff (n = 25) | Yes | High | No |
Hakimzada et al. 2020 [54] Country: England | Explore the attitudes of psychiatric nursing staff towards the use of BWCs on psychiatric inpatient wards. | BWCs; brand(s) not specified | Quantitative and qualitative survey questionnaire | Seven inpatient wards in one Mental Health Trust in South West London, including a PICU, two acute wards and four secure wards. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Staff (n = 60) | No | Medium | No |
Hardy et al. 2017 [55] Country: England | Examine the feasibility of using BWCs in an inpatient mental health setting. | BWCs; brand was Reveal trading as Calla | Mixed methods pre-post pilot study | Berrywood Hospital, an adult psychiatric facility in Northampton, England, run by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The five wards in the pilot included one male and one female recovery, one low secure unit, one acute. | Patients and staff Number of participants = not reported | No | Low | No |
Krieger et al. 2018 [38] Country: Germany | Assess patients’ preferences regarding prevalent specific forms of coercive interventions, their accompanying emotions, and their understanding of the experience as measured at different sites and different points in time using both interviews and self-assessments. | CCTV/video surveillance; part of the questionnaire specifically asks about patients’ preferences for video surveillance in seclusion; brand(s) not specified | Naturalistic trial | Three PICUs at the Asklepios Clinic North in Hamburg, Germany. Age of the inpatient population not specified. However, it can be inferred that patient participants included adults and children. | Patients Patients in coercive intervention group n = 213 Patients in comparison group (voluntary admission with no coercive treatment) n = 51 | No | Medium | No |
Malcolm et al. 2022 [42] Country: England | To explore the impact of introducing VBPMM with standard care, versus standard care alone on health and economic outcomes in PICUs across England. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Economic analysis study utilising a cost-calculator approach (using data from a single centre observational before and after study) | An adult PICU | Patients (n = not reported) | No | Low | Yes |
Malcolm et al. 2022 [43] Country: England | To assess the costs and outcomes associated with introducing VBPMM in an acute adult mental health inpatient hospital and an older adult mental health inpatient hospital for dementia. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Economic analysis study utilising a cost calculator approach (using observational data collected at two English NHS mental health trusts) | An acute adult mental health inpatient hospital and an older adult mental health inpatient hospital for dementia at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust in England | Patients (n = not measured) Interviews conducted with four staff (a ward manager, ward matron, a nurse, and a consultant psychiatrist) to inform figures for staff time needed to manage self-harm events on acute adult wards, and nighttime bedroom falls in older adult wards. | No | Low | Yes |
Murphy et al. 2017 [56] Country: England | To compare the costs of using GPS electronic monitoring (EM) in forensic psychiatric patients on leave from a medium-secure service by comparing the average total cost per patient with electronic monitoring against the average total cost per patient without EM. | GPS electronic monitoring; brand(s) unspecified | Retrospective observational study | River House, an adult medium-secure unit in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (107 male beds and 15 female beds) | Patients Intervention group n = 121 Control group n = 96 Total patients n = 175 Comparison group was patients who had used leave during a 3-month period in 2010 (no electronic monitoring). Intervention group was patients who had used leave in the corresponding period in 2011 (during which electronic monitoring had been implemented). | No | Medium | No |
Ndebele et al. 2022 [46] Country: England | To assess the effect of clinical teams augmenting their existing clinical practices with a VBPMM system on the number of assaults and rapid tranquillisation events. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Single-centre pragmatic study | A male PICU ward at Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust. Age of patient population not stated. | Staff interviews: n = 4 Staff surveys: n = 8 | No | Low | Yes |
Ndebele et al. 2023 [45] Country: England | To examine the effect of adopting the contact-free VBPMM system into existing clinical practice on the number of incidents of self-harm in bedrooms (all types and ligatures specifically) on acute mental health inpatient wards. A minor aspect of the study was to include patient and staff feedback. | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Mixed methods non-randomised controlled before-and-after evaluation within a pilot study | At Caludon Centre, Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT), a purpose-built facility, based on the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) site, providing inpatient and outpatient adult mental health care. | Staff and patients Number of patients in total = not reported Intervention group: two acute wards fitted with VBPMM (22-bed female and 20-bed male) Control wards: two acute wards without VBPMM selected based on the similarity of the patient cohort, ward size and clinical ways of working | No | Low | Yes |
Nijman et al. 2011 [57] Country: England | To investigate the prevalence of door locking and the use of other exit security measures on psychiatric admission wards in the UK, and to empirically study the associations between locking ward exit doors and absconding rates. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV; brand(s) not specified | Cross sectional study | 133 adult acute psychiatric wards in London, Central England and Northern England which participated in the City-128 study [58]. | Staff responded to the survey. Individual wards were the unit of measurement | No | High | No |
Oxehealth, 2022 [39] Country: England | Not clearly stated | VBPMM; Oxevision by Oxehealth | Mixed methods study | 13 wards, including the following services: female working age acute, male working age acute, mixed working age acute and psychiatric intensive care units (age not specified). | Patients (n = “over 75”) Number of patients rating each statement ranged from 60 to 78. “No opinion” responses were not included in these counts. Specific overall number of participants not stated | No However, in this report there is a description of the wider PPI work undertaken by Oxevision | Low | Yes |
Peek-Asa et al. 2009 [59] Country: USA | Compare the workplace violence prevention programmes in a sample of psychiatric units and facilities in New Jersey and California. The units and facilities were compared on four components: training, policies and procedures, environmental safeguards, and security. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV brand(s) not specified | Cross sectional survey | 83 psychiatric units within acute care hospitals and psychiatric facilities in New Jersey and California. Age of the inpatient populations not specified. | Psychiatric units were the individual unit of analysis. 53 in California 30 in New Jersey | No | Low | No |
Shetty et al. 2023 [60] Country: Ireland | Explore the patients’ experiences of different observation methods in seclusion and their influence on their connection and relations to staff, by patients in an Irish forensic mental health hospital, in order to inform future seclusion practices. | CCTV/video surveillance; video camera in seclusion room; brand(s) not specified | Retrospective phenomenological qualitative study | Medium secure wards (three male, one female) at an adult forensic mental health hospital in Ireland. | Patients (n = 10) | No | High | No |
Simpson et al. 2011 [61] Country: England | Discover whether rates of drug/alcohol use on acute psychiatric wards were related to levels and intensity of exit security measures. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV brand(s) not specified | Cross-sectional study | 136 acute adult psychiatric wards across London, Central England and North England. | Same as Nijman et al. [57] | No | High | No |
Steinert et al. 2014 [62] Country: Germany | Conduct an online survey on the current practice of coercive measures in German psychiatric hospitals, in light of regional legal prohibition of video surveillance (Nordrhein-Westfalia) in 2011. | CCTV/video surveillance; video monitoring during physical restraint; brand(s) not specified | Cross-sectional survey (online questionnaire) | 88 psychiatric hospitals in Germany This includes 36 specialist hospitals, 41 departments within general hospitals and 13 university hospitals. These included general psychiatry hospitals, as well as those for addictions, forensic psychiatry and old-age psychiatry. Age of the inpatient populations not specified. | Staff (n = 88) | Yes | High | No |
Tapp et al. 2016 [63] Country: Multi-country | Establish whether experts with clinical and/or research experience in this setting could reach consensus on elements of high-security hospital services that would be essential to the rehabilitation of forensic patients. | CCTV/video surveillance; CCTV brand(s) not specified | Three-round Delphi study | Forensic high security inpatient mental health services. Age of the inpatient population not specified. | Staff (n = 54) | No | Medium | No |
Tron et al. 2018 [64] Country: Israel | i) Develop and evaluate a framework for using wearable devices to facilitate continuous motor deficits monitoring in schizophrenia patients in a natural setting. ii) Help characterise subtypes of schizophrenia to better understand its causes and develop more personalised treatments. | Wearable sensor; smartwatch (GeneActiv) worn by patients with psychosis | Quantitative evaluation | Closed adult inpatient wards at Shaar-Meashe mental health centre. | Patients (n = 25) | No | Low | No |
Tully et al. 2016 [65] Country: England | Determine whether the introduction of Electronic Monitoring (EM) using GPS “tracking” led to a reduction in episodes of leave violation. They also aimed to assess the extent to which electronic monitoring affected the amount of overall leave and the proportion of leave that was unescorted. | GPS electronic monitoring; brand was “Buddi Tracker” | Observational pre-post study | The South London and Maudsley medium secure service in England (comprising two medium secure units in South London at the time of the study). Age of the inpatient population not specified. | N/A | No | Low | No |
Vartianinen & Hakola, 1994 [66] Country: Finland | To study, with a questionnaire, the effects of TV monitoring on patients and personnel. | CCTV/video surveillance; brand(s) not specified | Pre-post study using a survey | Four closed adult male wards in the Niuvanniemi hospital in Finland. | Staff and patients Staff n = 97 Patients n = 77 | No | Low | No |
Warr et al. 2005 [67] Country: England | Determine the acceptable use of CCTV surveillance in a mental health inpatient unit and whether it benefits patient care. | CCTV/video surveillance in bedrooms; brand(s) not specified | Qualitative interview study | Montpellier adult low-secure unit in England. | Staff and patients Staff n = 10 Patients n = 6 | No | Medium | No |
Wilson et al. 2023 [68] Country: England | Explore the perspectives of patients, mental health staff, and senior management to identify the possible impacts of BWCs in inpatient mental health settings. | BWCs; brand(s) not specified | Explorative qualitative study | Five NHS acute adult inpatient wards across England. | Staff and patients Total n = 64 Staff n = 25 Patients n = 24 Service users from Twitter n = 9 Mental health nursing directors n = 6 | Yes | High | No |
Zakaria & Ramli, 2018 [69] Country: Malaysia | Identify patients’ perceptions of physical privacy dimensions proposed by Carew and Stapleton. | CCTV/video surveillance; brand(s) not specified | Qualitative study | Psychiatric wards at a teaching hospital in Malaysia (included child and adult inpatients). | Patients (n = 25) | No | High | No |