A team of academics from Nottingham, Oxford and Surrey universities looked at how the National Health Service Litigation Authority had changed the way that hospitals paid into the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, which funds the cost of clinical negligence claims.

Since 2002 the NHSLA has funded the scheme through "pay-as-you-go" contributions from hospitals based on a biannual assessment of hospitals' risk management standards based on three levels. Hospitals that pass their assessment receive a discount on their contribution to the CNST for the next two years, rising from 10 percent for Level 1, to 20 percent for Level 2 and 30 percent for Level 3. Given that the average CNST contribution by a hospital trust is more than $1 million, therefore compliance with the highest standards can deliver significant financial savings, the researchers said.

The researchers found that compliance with high level risk management standards led to lower rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.