COST2CARE
COST2CARE: Addressing the economic and human cost of hospital acquired and nursing-sensitive adverse events in older patients through optimal use of routine discharge data and measurement of missed nursing care.
Cost2Care Healthcare Conference
The COST2CARE Healthcare Conference, funded by the Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland, was held at Dublin City University on 14 April 2026 and brought together more than 150 registered attendees from across nursing, healthcare, research and academia. The conference provided an opportunity to share key findings from the four-year project and to bring together the different strands of COST2CARE, including missed nursing care, nursing-sensitive adverse events, patient safety, HIPE data and the associated human and economic costs.
The programme included a strong mix of Irish and international expertise, with contributions from Professor Walter Sermeus, KU Leuven, Belgium, and Dr Kasia Bail, University of Canberra and ACT Health Directorate, Australia, alongside colleagues including Professor Anthony Staines, Dublin City University, and COST2CARE Principal Investigator Dr Marcia Kirwan, Dublin City University. The international speakers brought valuable perspectives from their respective work in nursing workforce research, older people’s care, patient safety and health services research, complementing the Irish research and practice perspectives.
Overall, the conference was an important opportunity to showcase the progress of COST2CARE and, importantly, to connect the research findings with the wider healthcare community. It highlighted how the project has moved from understanding the scale and experience of missed care and adverse events towards improving their visibility in routine data, strengthening data quality and considering how this evidence can support quality and patient-safety improvement in practice.
