Reporting of adverse events

Learning From Incident Reporting? Analysis of Incidents Resulting in Patient Injuries in a Web-Based System in Swedish Health Care

OBJECTIVES

Incident reporting (IR) systems have the potential to improve patient safety if they enable learning from the reported risks and incidents. The aim of this study was to investigate incidents registered in an IR system in a Swedish county council.

METHODS

The study was conducted in the County Council of Östergötland, Sweden. Data were retrieved from the IR system, which included 4755 incidents occurring in somatic care that resulted in patient injuries from 2004 to 2012. One hundred correctly classified patient injuries were randomly sampled from 3 injury severity levels: injuries leading to deaths, permanent harm, and temporary harm. Three aspects were analyzed: handling of the incident, causes of the incident, and actions taken to prevent its recurrence.

RESULTS

Of the 300 injuries, 79% were handled in the departments where they occurred. The department head decided what actions should be taken to prevent recurrence in response to 95% of the injuries. A total of 448 causes were identified for the injuries; problems associated with procedures, routines, and guidelines were most common. Decisions taken for 80% of the injuries could be classified using the IR system documentation and root cause analysis. The most commonly pursued type of action was change of work routine or guideline.

CONCLUSIONS

The handling, causes, and actions taken to prevent recurrence were similar for injuries of different severity levels. Various forms of feedback (information, education, and dialogue) were an integral aspect of the IR system. However, this feedback was primarily intradepartmental and did not yield much organizational learning.

Increasing Trainee Reporting of Adverse Events With Monthly Trainee-Directed Review of Adverse Events

OBJECTIVE

Underreporting of adverse events by physicians is a barrier to improving patient safety. In an effort to increase resident and medical student (hereafter "trainee") reporting of adverse events, trainees developed and led a monthly conference during which they reviewed adverse event reports (AERs), identified system vulnerabilities, and designed solutions to those vulnerabilities.

METHODS

Monthly conferences over the 22-month study period were led by pediatric trainees and attended by fellow trainees, departmental leadership, and members of the hospital's quality improvement team. Trainees selected which AERs to review, with a focus on common near misses. Discussions were directed toward the development of potential solutions to issues identified in the reports. Trainee submissions of AERs were tracked monthly.

RESULTS

The mean number of AERs submitted by trainees increased from 6.7 per month during the baseline period to 14.1 during the study period (P < .001). The average percent of reports submitted by trainees increased from a baseline of 27.6% to 46.1% during the study period (P = .0059). There was no significant increase in reporting by any other group (attending, nursing, or pharmacy). Multiple meaningful solutions to identified system vulnerabilities were developed with trainee input.

CONCLUSIONS

Trainee-led monthly adverse event review conferences sustainably increased trainee reporting of adverse events. These conferences had the additional benefit of having trainees use their unique perspective as frontline providers to identify important system vulnerabilities and develop innovative solutions.

Reporting of Perioperative Adverse Events by Pediatric Anesthesiologists at a Tertiary Children's Hospital: Targeted Interventions to Increase the Rate of Reporting

BACKGROUND

Incident reporting systems (IRSs) are important patient safety tools for identifying risks and opportunities for improvement. A major IRS limitation is underreporting of incidents. Perioperative anesthesia IRSs have been established at multiple pediatric institutions and a national pediatric anesthesia IRS for perioperative serious adverse events (SAEs) is maintained by Wake Up Safe (WUS), a patient safety organization dedicated to pediatric anesthesia quality improvement. A confidential, electronic, perioperative IRS was instituted at our tertiary children's hospital, which is a WUS member. The primary study aim was to increase the rate of incident reporting by anesthesiologists at our institution through a series of interventions. The secondary aim was to characterize our reporting behavior relative to national practice by referencing SAE data from WUS.

METHODS

Perioperative adverse events reported over a 71-month period (November 2010 to September 2016) were categorized and the monthly reporting rates determined. Effects of 6 interventions targeted to increase the reporting rate were analyzed using control charts. Intervention 5 involved interviewing pediatric anesthesiologists to ascertain incident reporting barriers and motivators. A key driver diagram was developed and used to guide an improvement initiative. Incidents that fulfilled WUS criteria for SAEs were identified and categorized. SAE reporting rates over a 27-month period for 12 WUS member institutions were determined.

RESULTS

2689 perioperative adverse events were noted in 1980 of 72,384 anesthetics. Mean monthly adverse event case rate was 273 (95% confidence interval, 250-297) per 10,000 anesthetics. A subgroup involving 54,469 cases had 529 SAEs in 440 anesthetics; a mean monthly SAE case rate of 80 (95% confidence interval, 69-91) per 10,000 anesthetics. Cardiac, respiratory, and airway events predominated. Relative to WUS peer members, our institution is a high-reporting outlier. The rate of incident reporting per 10,000 anesthetics was sustainably increased from 149 ± 35 to 387 ± 73 (mean ± SD) after implementing mandatory IRS data entry and Intervention 5 quality improvement initiative. Barriers to reporting included concern for punitive repercussions, feelings of incompetence, poor education about what constitutes an event, lack of feedback, and the perception that reporting had no value. These were addressed by IRS education, cultivation of a culture of safety where reporting is encouraged, reporter feedback, and better inclusion of anesthesiologists in patient safety work.

CONCLUSIONS

Electronic mandatory IRS data entry and an initiative to understand and address reporting barriers and motivators were associated with sustained increases in the adverse event reporting rate. These strategies to minimize underreporting enhance IRS value for learning and may be generalizable.

Same behavior, different provider: American medical students' attitudes toward reporting risky behaviors committed by doctors, nurses, and classmates

The bioethics literature lacks findings about medical students' attitudes toward reporting risky behaviors that can cause error or reduce the perceived quality of health care. A survey was administered to 159 medical students to assess their likelihood to directly approach and to report various providers-a physician, nurse, or medical student-for three behaviors (poor hand hygiene, intoxication, or disrespect of patients). For the same behavior, medical students were significantly more likely to approach a classmate, followed by a nurse and then a doctor (p < .0001), to ask for behavioral modification. Across all three health care provider types, medical students were most likely to report intoxication (p < .0001). Medical students' willingness to approach or report a provider for a risky or unprofessional behavior is influenced by the type of health care provider in question. Medical schools should implement patient safety curricula that alleviate fears about reporting superiors and create anonymous reporting systems to improve reporting rates.

The effects of a lean transition on process times, patients and employees

Purpose Treatment delays must be avoided, especially in oncology, to assure sustainable high-quality health care and increase the odds of survival. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that waiting times would decrease and patients and employees would benefit, when specific lean interventions are incorporated in an organizational improvement approach. Design/methodology/approach In 2013, 15 lean interventions were initiated to improve flow in a single radiotherapy institute. Process/waiting times, patient satisfaction, safety, employee satisfaction, and absenteeism were evaluated using a mixed methods methodology (2010-2014). Data from databases, surveys, and interviews were analyzed by time series analysis, χ², multi-level regression, and t-tests. Findings Median waiting/process times improved from 20.2 days in 2012 to 16.3 days in 2014 ( p<0.001). The percentage of palliative patients for which waiting times had exceeded Dutch national norms (ten days) improved from 35 (six months in 2012: pre-intervention) to 16 percent (six months in 2013-2014: post-intervention; p<0.01), and the percentage exceeding national objectives (seven days) from 22 to 17 percent ( p=0.44). For curative patients, exceeding of norms (28 days) improved from 17 (2012) to 8 percent (2013-2014: p=0.05), and for the objectives (21 days) from 18 to 10 percent ( p<0.01). Reported safety incidents decreased 47 percent from 2009 to 2014, whereas safety culture, awareness, and intention to solve problems improved. Employee satisfaction improved slightly, and absenteeism decreased from 4.6 (2010) to 2.7 percent (2014; p<0.001). Originality/value Combining specific lean interventions with an organizational improvement approach improved waiting times, patient safety, employee satisfaction, and absenteeism on the short term. Continuing evaluation of effects should study the improvements sustainability.

Analysis of Factors Associated With Rhytidectomy Malpractice Litigation Cases

Importance

This study investigates the financial burden of medical malpractice litigation associated with rhytidectomies, as well as factors that contribute to litigation and poor defendant outcomes, which can help guide physician practices.

Objective

To comprehensively evaluate rhytidectomy malpractice litigation.

Data Sources and Study Selection

Jury verdict and settlement reports related to rhytidectomy malpractice litigations were obtained using the Westlaw Next database. Use of medical malpractice in conjunction with several terms for rhytidectomy, to account for the various procedure names associated with the procedure, yielded 155 court cases. Duplicate and nonrelevant cases were removed, and 89 cases were included in the analysis and reviewed for outcomes, defendant specialty, payments, and other allegations raised in proceedings. Data were collected from November 21, 2015, to December 25, 2015. Data analysis took place from December 25, 2015, to January 20, 2016.

Results

A total of 89 cases met our inclusion criteria. Most plaintiffs were female (81 of 88 with known sex [92%]), and patient age ranged from 40 to 76 years (median age, 56 years). Fifty-three (60%) were resolved in the defendant's favor, while the remaining 36 cases (40%) were resolved with either a settlement or a plaintiff verdict payment. The mean payment was $1.4 million. A greater proportion of cases involving plastic surgeon defendants were resolved with payment compared with cases involving defendants with ear, nose, and throat specialty (15 [36%] vs 4 [24%]). The most common allegations raised in litigation were intraoperative negligence (61 [69%]), poor cosmesis or disfigurement (57 [64%]), inadequate informed consent (30 [34%]), additional procedures required (14 [16%]), postoperative negligence (12 [14%]), and facial nerve injury (10 [11%]). Six cases (7%) involved alleged negligence surrounding a "lifestyle-lift" procedure, which tightens or oversews the superficial muscular aponeurosis system layer.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this study, although most cases of rhytidectomy malpractice litigation were resolved in the defendant's favor, cases resulting in payments created substantial financial burden for the defendants. Common factors cited by plaintiffs for pursuing litigation included dissatisfaction with cosmetic outcomes and perceived deficits in informed consent. These factors reinforce the importance of a comprehensive, preoperative informed consent process in which the specific potential risks and outcomes are presented by the surgeon to the patient to limit or avoid postsurgical allegations. Intraoperative negligence and facial nerve injury were significantly more likely to result in poor defendant outcomes.

Level of Evidence

NA.

The key role of clinical and community health nurses in pharmacovigilance

PURPOSE

The reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is starting to become routine to nurses. The aim of this review is to underline the role of clinical and community health nurses in pharmacovigilance and to promote their effective participation in ADR reporting in different countries and for patients of different ages.

METHODS

The PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases were searched for research articles published between January 1985 and April 2017 using the search items "pharmacovigilance" AND "nurse;" "adverse drug reaction report" AND "nurse;" "community health nurse" AND "adverse drug reaction."

RESULTS

A total of 987 articles were identified using our search strategy, of which 180 articles remained over after the removal of duplicate articles. Of these 180 studies, upon full review we identified 24 which met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and included these in our review. ADR reports by clinical nurses in some countries are comparable in quality and number to those submitted by physicians or pharmacists. Data on ADRs reported by community nurses are currently not available. However, numerous publications emphasized the challenges faced by nurses in reporting ADRs and the need to include pharmacovigilance training in both clinical and community health nurse academic education.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses are central actors in pharmacovigilance activities, particularly in identifying ADRs which remain outside the reach of other healthcare providers and in being fundamental to the preservation of the health of patients and of the entire community, with attention to the more vulnerable patients, such as children and the elderly.

Electronic approaches to making sense of the text in the adverse event reporting system

INTRODUCTION

Health care organizations working to eliminate preventable harm and to improve patient safety must have robust programs to collect and to analyze data on adverse events in order to use the information to affect improvement. Such adverse event reporting systems are based on frontline personnel reporting issues that arise in the course of their daily work. Limitations in how existing software systems handle these reports mean that use of this potentially rich information is resource intensive and prone to variable results.

AIM

The aim of this study was to develop an electronic approach to processing the text in medical event reports that would be reliable enough to be used to improve patient safety.

METHODS

At Connecticut Children's Medical Center, staff manually enter reports of adverse events into a web-based software tool. We evaluated the ability of 2 electronic methods-rule-based query and semi-supervised machine learning-to identify specific types of events ("use cases") versus a reference standard. Rule-based query was tested on 5 use cases and machine learning on a subset of 2 using 9164 events reported from February 2012-January 2014.

RESULTS

Machine learning found 93% of the weight-based errors and 92% of the errors in patient-identification. Rule-based query had accuracy of 99% or greater, high precision, and high recall for all use cases.

CONCLUSIONS

Electronic approaches to streamlining the use of adverse event reports are feasible to automate and valuable for categorizing this important data for use in improving patient safety.

A cross-national comparison of incident reporting systems implemented in German and Swiss hospitals

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to empirically compare incident reporting systems (IRS) in two European countries and to explore the relationship of IRS characteristics with context factors such as hospital characteristics and characteristics of clinical risk management (CRM).

DESIGN

We performed exploratory, secondary analyses of data on characteristics of IRS from nationwide surveys of CRM practices.

SETTING

The survey was originally sent to 2136 hospitals in Germany and Switzerland.

PARTICIPANTS

Persons responsible for CRM in 622 hospitals completed the survey (response rate 29%).

INTERVENTION(S)

None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

Differences between IRS in German and Swiss hospitals were assessed using Chi2, Fisher's Exact and Freeman-Halton-Tests, as appropriate. To explore interrelations between IRS characteristics and context factors (i.e. hospital and CRM characteristics) we computed Cramer's V.

RESULTS

Comparing participating hospitals across countries, Swiss hospitals had implemented IRS earlier, more frequently and more often provided introductory IRS training systematically. German hospitals had more frequently systematically implemented standardized procedures for event analyses. IRS characteristics were significantly associated with hospital characteristics such as hospital type as well as with CRM characteristics such as existence of strategic CRM objectives and of a dedicated position for central CRM coordination.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to an improved understanding of differences in the way IRS are set up in two European countries and explores related context factors. This opens up new possibilities for empirically informed, strategic interventions to further improve dissemination of IRS and thus support hospitals in their efforts to move patient safety forward.

Is the "July Effect" Real? Pediatric Trainee Reported Medical Errors and Adverse Events

Introduction:

The “July Effect” suggests an increase in patient adverse events in July compared with other months due to the introduction of new providers throughout the training continuum. The aim of this initiative was to analyze reported pediatric trainee medical errors from May through September 2015 at a tertiary care free-standing academic children’s hospital to determine if there were more reported medical errors and more adverse events from those errors in July.

Methods:

An error surveillance system is used to report and track near misses, adverse events, and medical errors. Three of the authors reviewed each report, which was electronically collected in the institution during the time period of interest. The reported medical error incidence per 1,000 trainee-days was compared against those in July for a significant difference.

Results:

There are a total of 282 trainees (86 pediatric residents, 81 nonpediatric residents, and 115 fellows) who are clinically active in the hospital at any given month. Pediatric residents had more reported medical errors in July (31) compared with May (16; P = 0.015), June (16; P = 0.019), and August (19; P = 0.046). There was no significant difference in the number of adverse events from reported medical errors by trainees in July (7) compared with May (5), June (8), August (4), or September (8; P > 0.2).

Conclusion:

In this single-center evaluation, there is an increase in reported medical errors involving pediatric residents in July compared with the months surrounding July. However, there is no difference in numbers of adverse events from those errors between these months.

Radiology Research in Quality and Safety: Current Trends and Future Needs

Promoting quality and safety research is now essential for radiology as reimbursement is increasingly tied to measures of quality, patient safety, efficiency, and appropriateness of imaging. This article provides an overview of key features necessary to promote successful quality improvement efforts in radiology. Emphasis is given to current trends and future opportunities for directing research. Establishing and maintaining a culture of safety is paramount to organizations wishing to improve patient care. The correct culture must be in place to support quality initiatives and create accountability for patient care. Focused educational curricula are necessary to teach quality and safety-related skills and behaviors to trainees, staff members, and physicians. The increasingly complex healthcare landscape requires that organizations build effective data infrastructures to support quality and safety research. Incident reporting systems designed specifically for medical imaging will benefit quality improvement initiatives by identifying and learning from system errors, enhancing knowledge about safety, and creating safer systems through the implementation of standardized practices and standards. Finally, validated performance measures must be developed to accurately reflect the value of the care we provide for our patients and referring providers. Common metrics used in radiology are reviewed with focus on current and future opportunities for investigation.

Status of patient safety culture in Arab countries: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

To explore the status of patient safety culture in Arab countries based on the findings of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC).

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHODS

We performed electronic searches of the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, ProQuest and PsychINFO, Google Scholar and PubMed databases, with manual searches of bibliographies of included articles and key journals. We included studies that were conducted in the Arab countries that were focused on patient safety culture. 2 reviewers independently verified that the studies met the inclusion criteria and critically assessed the quality of the studies.

RESULTS

18 studies met our inclusion criteria. The review identified that non-punitive response to error is seen as a serious issue which needs to be improved. Healthcare professionals in the Arab countries tend to think that a 'culture of blame' still exists that prevents them from reporting incidents. We found an overall similarity between the reported composite score for dimension of teamwork within units in all of the reviewed studies. Teamwork within units was found to be better than teamwork across hospital units. All of the reviewed studies reported that organisational learning and continuous improvement was satisfactory as the average score of this dimension for all studies was 73.2%. Moreover, the review found that communication openness seems to be a concerning issue for healthcare professionals in the Arab countries.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need to promote patient safety culture as a strategy for improving the patient safety in the Arab world. Improving patient safety culture should include all stakeholders, like policymakers, healthcare providers and those responsible for medical education. This review was limited only to English language publications. The varied settings in which the HSPSC was used may have influenced the areas of strengths and weaknesses as healthcare workers' perception of safety culture may differ.

A patient feedback reporting tool for OpenNotes: implications for patient-clinician safety and quality partnerships

BACKGROUND

OpenNotes, a national movement inviting patients to read their clinicians' notes online, may enhance safety through patient-reported documentation errors.

OBJECTIVE

To test an OpenNotes patient reporting tool focused on safety concerns.

METHODS

We invited 6225 patients through a patient portal to provide note feedback in a quality improvement pilot between August 2014 and 2015. A link at the end of the note led to a 9-question survey. Patient Relations personnel vetted responses, shared safety concerns with providers and documented whether changes were made.

RESULTS

2736/6225(44%) of patients read notes; among these, 1 in 12 patients used the tool, submitting 260 reports. Nearly all (96%) respondents reported understanding the note. Patients and care partners documented potential safety concerns in 23% of reports; 2% did not understand the care plan and 21% reported possible mistakes, including medications, existing health problems, something important missing from the note or current symptoms. Among these, 64% were definite or possible safety concerns on clinician review, and 57% of cases confirmed with patients resulted in a change to the record or care. The feedback tool exceeded the reporting rate of our ambulatory online clinician adverse event reporting system several-fold. After a year, 99% of patients and care partners found the tool valuable, 97% wanted it to continue, 98% reported unchanged or improved relationships with their clinician, and none of the providers in the small pilot reported worsening workflow or relationships with patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients and care partners reported potential safety concerns in about one-quarter of reports, often resulting in a change to the record or care. Early data from an OpenNotes patient reporting tool may help engage patients as safety partners without apparent negative consequences for clinician workflow or patient-clinician relationships.

Design and Testing of BACRA, a Web-Based Tool for Middle Managers at Health Care Facilities to Lead the Search for Solutions to Patient Safety Incidents

BACKGROUND

Lack of time, lack of familiarity with root cause analysis, or suspicion that the reporting may result in negative consequences hinder involvement in the analysis of safety incidents and the search for preventive actions that can improve patient safety.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was develop a tool that enables hospitals and primary care professionals to immediately analyze the causes of incidents and to propose and implement measures intended to prevent their recurrence.

METHODS

The design of the Web-based tool (BACRA) considered research on the barriers for reporting, review of incident analysis tools, and the experience of eight managers from the field of patient safety. BACRA's design was improved in successive versions (BACRA v1.1 and BACRA v1.2) based on feedback from 86 middle managers. BACRA v1.1 was used by 13 frontline professionals to analyze incidents of safety; 59 professionals used BACRA v1.2 and assessed the respective usefulness and ease of use of both versions.

RESULTS

BACRA contains seven tabs that guide the user through the process of analyzing a safety incident and proposing preventive actions for similar future incidents. BACRA does not identify the person completing each analysis since the password introduced to hide said analysis only is linked to the information concerning the incident and not to any personal data. The tool was used by 72 professionals from hospitals and primary care centers. BACRA v1.2 was assessed more favorably than BACRA v1.1, both in terms of its usefulness (z=2.2, P=.03) and its ease of use (z=3.0, P=.003).

CONCLUSIONS

BACRA helps to analyze incidents of safety and to propose preventive actions. BACRA guarantees anonymity of the analysis and reduces the reluctance of professionals to carry out this task. BACRA is useful and easy to use.

The problem of engaging hospital doctors in promoting safety and quality in clinical care

There is widespread agreement that the medical profession has much to learn about addressing adverse events in clinical practice and participating in clinical governance. In England and Wales centrally driven initiatives such as medical audit, clinical governance and the National Reporting and Learning System have failed to transform the management of iatrogenic adverse events. In this article we explore the historical and cultural background of these issues with respect to hospital medicine and suggest means of tackling the challenges ahead.

Health Care Provider Use of Private Sector Internal Error-Reporting Systems

The purpose of this study was to review the state of the art of private sector internal error-reporting systems and to begin to develop a classification system for comparing systems. Interviews were conducted to research and examine 9 systems currently on the market. Analysis resulted in the following observations: (1) 7 of the systems are stand-alone, while 2 are part of larger hospital information systems; (2) most of the systems have been in existence for less than 5 years; (3) acute care hospitals are the primary clients; (4) systems are capable of interfacing with other information systems and root-cause analysis programs; and (5) systems are browser based and accessible via the Internet and/or the provider's intranet. Additional studies are needed to determine the impact of these systems on health outcomes. However, one fact is clear: tracking incidents will not improve patient safety unless administrators close the feedback loop on quality.

Mandatory State-Based Error-Reporting Systems: Current and Future Prospects

The magnitude of medical errors documented in the 1999 Institute of Medicine report "To Err Is Human" encouraged health care leaders across the country to evaluate and improve current systems of care. To aid in this effort, the authors recommended and provided guidelines for establishing state-based mandatory error-reporting systems. This repository for medical errors would allow experts to categorize, trend, and analyze data, generating institutional responsibility and increasing knowledge about medical mistakes. To be effective, these systems must employ efficient data collection methods, techniques for analysis, and feedback mechanisms. They must also engage institutional leaders in fostering a culture of safety and encourage multidisciplinary collaboration to learn from mistakes and improve microsystem-level processes. A review of current systems reveals extreme variation across states in each of these areas. However, initial successes do exist, suggesting the true potential of these systems and the need for continued evaluation as systems progress in future efforts.

Protocol of the impact of alternative social assistance disbursement on drug-related harm (TASA) study: a randomized controlled trial to evaluate changes to payment timing and frequency among people who use illicit drugs

Background

Government social assistance payments seek to alleviate poverty and address survival needs, but their monthly disbursement may cue increases in illicit drug use. This cue may be magnified when assistance is disbursed simultaneously across the population. Synchronized payments have been linked to escalations in drug use and unintended but severe drug-related harms, including overdose, as well as spikes in demand for health, social, financial and police services.

Methods/design

The TASA study examines whether changing payment timing and frequency can mitigate drug-related harm associated with synchronized social assistance disbursement. The study is a parallel arm multi-group randomized controlled trial in which 273 participants are randomly allocated for six assistance cycles to a control or one of two intervention arms on a 1:1:1 basis. Intervention arm participants receive their payments: (1) monthly; or (2) semi-monthly, in each case on days that are not during the week when cheques are normally issued. The study partners with a community-based credit union that has developed a system to vary social assistance payment timing. The primary outcome is a 40 % increase in drug use during the 3 days beginning with cheque issue day compared to other days of the month. Bi-weekly follow-up interviews collect participant information on this and secondary outcomes of interest, including drug-related harm (e.g. non-fatal overdose), exposure to violence and health service utilization. Self-reported data will be supplemented with participant information from health, financial, police and government administrative databases. A longitudinal, nested, qualitative parallel process evaluation explores participant experiences, and a cost-effectiveness evaluation of different disbursement scenarios will be undertaken. Outcomes will be compared between control and intervention arms to identify the impacts of alternative disbursement schedules on drug-related harm resulting from synchronized income assistance.

Discussion

This structural RCT benefits from strong community partnerships, highly detailed outcome measurement, robust methods of randomization and data triangulation with third party administrative databases. The study will provide evidence regarding the potential importance of social assistance program design as a lever to support population health outcomes and service provision for populations with a high prevalence of substance use.

Trial registration

NCT02457949 Registered 13 May 2015.

Higher occurrence of nausea and vomiting after total hip arthroplasty using general versus spinal anesthesia: an observational study

BACKGROUND

Under the assumption that postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) may occur after total hip arthroplasty (THA) regardless of the anesthetic technique used, it is not clear whether general (GA) or spinal (SA) anesthesia has higher causal effect on this occurrence. Conflicting results have been reported.

METHODS

In this observational study, we selected all elective THA interventions performed in adults between 1999 and 2008 in a Swiss orthopedic clinic under general or spinal anesthesia. To assess the effect of anesthesia type on the occurrence of PONV, we used the propensity score and matching methods, which allowed us to emulate the design and results of an RCT.

RESULTS

Among 3922 procedures, 1984 (51 %) patients underwent GA, of which 4.1 % experienced PONV, and 1938 underwent SA, of which 3.5 % experienced PONV. We found that the average treatment effect on the treated, i.e. the effect of anesthesia type for a sample of individuals that actually received spinal anesthesia compared to individuals who received GA, was ATET = 2.00 % [95 % CI, 0.78-3.19 %], which translated into an OR = 1.97 [95 % CI 1.35; 2.87].

CONCLUSION

This suggests that the type of anesthesia is not neutral regarding PONV, general anesthesia being more strongly associated with PONV than spinal anesthesia in orthopedic surgery.

A first step toward understanding patient safety

Patient safety has become an important policy agenda in healthcare systems since publication of the 1999 report entitled "To Err Is Human." The paradigm has changed from blaming the individual for the error to identifying the weakness in the system that led to the adverse events. Anesthesia is one of the first healthcare specialties to adopt techniques and lessons from the aviation industry. The widespread use of simulation programs and the application of human factors engineering to clinical practice are the influences of the aviation industry. Despite holding relatively advanced medical technology and comparable safety records, the Korean health industry has little understanding of the systems approach to patient safety. Because implementation of the existing system and program requires time, dedication, and financial support, the Korean healthcare industry is in urgent need of developing patient safety policies and putting them into practice to improve patient safety before it is too late.

Human Factors Meets Health Care: The Ultimate Challenge

The health care industry is finally taking strong measures to address system flaws leading to medical error.

A safety incident reporting system for primary care. A systematic literature review and consensus procedure by the LINNEAUS collaboration on patient safety in primary care

Background: Incident reporting is widely used in both patient safety improvement programmes, and in research on patient safety.

Objective: To identify the key requirements for incident reporting systems in primary care; to develop an Internet-based incident reporting and learning system for primary care.

Methods: A literature review looking at the purpose, design and requirements of an incident reporting system (IRS) was used to update an existing incident reporting system, widely used in Germany. Then, an international expert panel with knowledge on IRS developed the criteria for the design of a new web-based incident reporting system for European primary care. A small demonstration project was used to create a web-based reporting system, to be made freely available for practitioners and researchers. The expert group compiled recommendations regarding the desirable features of an incident reporting system for European primary care. These features covered the purpose of reporting, who should be involved in reporting, the mode of reporting, design considerations, feedback mechanisms and preconditions necessary for the implementation of an IRS.

Results: A freely available web-based reporting form was developed, based on these criteria. It can be modified for local contexts. Practitioners and researchers can use this system as a means of recording patient safety incidents in their locality and use it as a basis for learning from errors.

Conclusion: The LINNEAUS collaboration has provided a freely available incident reporting system that can be modified for a local context and used throughout Europe.

Follow-up and Management of Patients Exposed to a Flawed Automated Endoscope Washer-Disinfector in a Digestive Diseases Unit

The possible transmission of pathogens to 236 persons exposed to an endoscope processed in a flawed automated endoscope washer-disinfector in a gastrointestinal endoscopy unit was investigated. During 6 months, 197 patients (83.5%) were followed up, and no cases of acute human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, or hepatitis B virus infection were observed. This event created the conditions for improvements in safety procedures.

Unit-based incident reporting and root cause analysis: variation at three hospital unit types

OBJECTIVES

To minimise adverse events in healthcare, various large-scale incident reporting and learning systems have been developed worldwide. Nevertheless, learning from patient safety incidents is going slowly. Local, unit-based reporting systems can help to get faster and more detailed insight into unit-specific safety issues. The aim of our study was to gain insight into types and causes of patient safety incidents in hospital units and to explore differences between unit types.

DESIGN

Prospective observational study.

SETTING

10 emergency medicine units, 10 internal medicine units and 10 general surgery units in 20 hospitals in the Netherlands participated. Patient safety incidents were reported by healthcare providers. Reports were analysed with root cause analysis. The results were compared between the 3 unit types.

RESULTS

A total of 2028 incidents were reported in an average reporting period of 8 weeks per unit. More than half had some consequences for patients, such as a prolonged hospital stay or longer waiting time, and a small number resulted in patient harm. Significant differences in incident types and causes were found between unit types. Emergency units reported more incidents related to collaboration, whereas surgical and internal medicine units reported more incidents related to medication use. The distribution of root causes of surgical and emergency medicine units showed more mutual similarities than those of internal medicine units.

CONCLUSIONS

Comparable incidents and causes have been found in all units, but there were also differences between units and unit types. Unit-based incident reporting gives specific information and therefore makes improvements easier. We conclude that unit-based incident reporting has an added value besides hospital-wide or national reporting systems that already exist in various countries.

Assessment of the contribution of morbidity and mortality conferences to quality and safety improvement: a survey of participants' perceptions

Background

Evidence for the effectiveness of the morbidity and mortality conferences in improving patient safety is lacking. The aim of this survey was to assess the opinion of participants concerning the benefits and the functioning of morbidity and mortality conferences, according to their organizational characteristics.

Methods

We conducted a survey of professionals involved in a morbidity and mortality conference using a self-administered questionnaire in three French teaching hospitals in 2012. The questionnaire focused on the functioning of morbidity and mortality conferences, the perceived benefits, the motivations of participants, and how morbidity and mortality conferences could be improved. The perception of participants was analysed according to the characteristics of morbidity and mortality conferences.

Results

A total of 698 participants in 54 morbidity and mortality conferences completed the questionnaire. Most of them (91 %) were satisfied with how the morbidity and mortality conference they attended was conducted. The improvements in healthcare quality and patient safety were the main benefits perceived by participants. Effectiveness in improving safety was mainly perceived when cases were thoroughly analysed (adjusted odds ratio [a0R] =2.31 [1.14–4.66]). The existence of a written charter (p = 0.05), the use of a standardized case presentation (p = 0.049), and prior dissemination of the meeting agenda (p = 0.02) were also associated with the perception of morbidity and mortality conference effectiveness. The development and achievement of improvement initiatives were associated with morbidity and mortality conferences perceived as being more effective (p < 0.01). Participants suggested improving the attendance of medical and paramedical professionals to enhance the effectiveness of morbidity and mortality conferences.

Conclusions

Morbidity and mortality conferences were positively perceived. These results suggest that a structured framework and thoroughly analyzing cases improve their effectiveness.

Patient safety and nursing implication: Survey in Catalan hospitals

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to describe the implementation of the patient safety (PS) programs in catalan hospitals and to analyze the level of nursing involvement.

METHOD

Multicenter cross-sectional study. To obtain the data two questionnaires were developed; one addressed to the hospital direction and another to the nurse executive in PS. The survey was distributed during 2013 to the 65 acute care hospitals in Catalonia.

RESULTS

The questionnaire was answered by 43 nursing directors and 40 nurse executive in PS. 93% of the hospitals responded that they had a PS Program and 81.4% used a specific scoreboard with PS indicators. The referent of the hospital in PS was a nurse in 55.8% of the centres. 92.5% had a system of notification of adverse effects with an annual average of 190.3 notifications. In 86% of the centres had a nurse involved in the PS program but only in the 16% of the centres the nurse dedication was at full-time. The nurse respondents evaluate the degree of implementation of the PBS program with a note of approved and they propound as improvement increase the staff dedicated to the PS and specific academic training in PS.

CONCLUSIONS

The degree of implementation of programs for patient safety is high in Catalan acute hospitals, while the organizational structure is highly diverse. In more than half of the hospitals the PS referent was a nurse, confirming the nurse involvement in the PS programs.

Adverse events and near misses relating to information management in a hospital

Objective:

This study described information management incidents and adverse event reporting choices of health professionals.

Methods:

Hospital adverse events reported in an anonymous electronic reporting system were analysed using directed content analysis and descriptive and inferential statistics. The data consisted of near miss and adverse event incident reports ( n = 3075) that occurred between January 2008 and the end of December 2009.

Results:

A total of 824 incidents were identified. The most common information management incident was failure in written information transfer and communication, when patient data were copied or documented incorrectly. Often patient data were transferred using paper even though an electronic patient record was in use. Reporting choices differed significantly among professional groups; in particular, registered nurses reported more events than other health professionals.

Conclusion:

A broad spectrum of information management incidents was identified, which indicates that preventing adverse events requires the development of safe practices, especially in documentation and information transfer.

Interprofessional team management in pediatric critical care: some challenges and possible solutions

BACKGROUND

Aiming for and ensuring effective patient safety is a major priority in the management and culture of every health care organization. The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) has become a workplace with a high diversity of multidisciplinary physicians and professionals. Therefore, delivery of high-quality care with optimal patient safety in a PICU is dependent on effective interprofessional team management. Nevertheless, ineffective interprofessional teamwork remains ubiquitous.

METHODS

We based our review on the framework for interprofessional teamwork recently published in association with the UK Centre for Advancement of Interprofessional Education. Articles were selected to achieve better understanding and to include and translate new ideas and concepts.

FINDINGS

The barrier between autonomous nurses and doctors in the PICU within their silos of specialization, the failure of shared mental models, a culture of disrespect, and the lack of empowering parents as team members preclude interprofessional team management and patient safety. A mindset of individual responsibility and accountability embedded in a network of equivalent partners, including the patient and their family members, is required to achieve optimal interprofessional care. Second, working competently as an interprofessional team is a learning process. Working declared as a learning process, psychological safety, and speaking up are pivotal factors to learning in daily practice. Finally, changes in small steps at the level of the microlevel unit are the bases to improve interprofessional team management and patient safety. Once small things with potential impact can be changed in one's own unit, engagement of health care professionals occurs and projects become accepted.

CONCLUSION

Bottom-up patient safety initiatives encouraging participation of every single care provider by learning effective interprofessional team management within daily practice may be an effective way of fostering patient safety.

Patient safety's missing link: using clinical expertise to recognize, respond to and reduce risks at a population level

INTRODUCTION

Although incident reporting systems are widespread in health care as a strategy to reduce harm to patients, the focus has been on reporting incidents rather than responding to them. Systems containing large numbers of incidents are uniquely placed to raise awareness of, and then characterize and respond to infrequent, but significant risks. The aim of this paper is to outline a framework for the surveillance of such risks, their systematic analysis, and for the development and dissemination of population-based preventive and corrective strategies using clinical and human factors expertise.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A POPULATION-LEVEL RESPONSE

The framework outlines four system requirements: to report incidents; to aggregate them; to support and conduct a risk surveillance, review and response process; and to disseminate recommendations. Personnel requirements include a non-hierarchical multidisciplinary team comprising clinicians and subject-matter and human factors experts to provide interpretation and high-level judgement from a range of perspectives. The risk surveillance, review and response process includes searching of large incident and other databases for how and why things have gone wrong, narrative analysis by clinical experts, consultation with the health care sector, and development and pilot testing of corrective strategies. Criteria for deciding which incidents require a population-level response are outlined.

DISCUSSION

The incremental cost of a population-based response function is modest compared with the 'reporting' element. Combining clinical and human factors expertise and a systematic approach underpins the creation of credible risk identification processes and the development of preventive and corrective strategies.

Attitudes and Usage of the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System Among Gastroenterology Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

The Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) is used for postmarketing pharmacovigilance. Our study sought to assess attitudes and usage of the FAERS among gastroenterology nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). A survey was administered at the August 2012 Principles of Gastroenterology for the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant course, held in Chicago, IL. Of the 128 respondents, 123 (96%) reported a specialty in gastroenterology or hepatology and were included in analysis. Eighty-nine participants were NPs and 32 PAs, whereas 2 did not report their profession. Although 119 (98%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that accurately reporting adverse drug reactions is an important process to optimize patient safety, the majority of participants (54% NPs and 81% PAs) were unfamiliar with the FAERS. In addition, only 20% of NPs and 9% of PAs reported learning about the FAERS in NP or PA schooling. Our study shows enthusiasm among gastroenterology NPs and PAs for the reporting of adverse drug reactions, coupled with a lack of familiarity with the FAERS. This presents an opportunity for enhanced education about reporting of adverse drug reactions for gastroenterology NPs and PAs.

Improving the governance of patient safety in emergency care: a systematic review of interventions

OBJECTIVES

To systematically review interventions that aim to improve the governance of patient safety within emergency care on effectiveness, reliability, validity and feasibility.

DESIGN

A systematic review of the literature.

METHODS

PubMed, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and PsychInfo were searched for studies published between January 1990 and July 2014. We included studies evaluating interventions relevant for higher management to oversee and manage patient safety, in prehospital emergency medical service (EMS) organisations and hospital-based emergency departments (EDs). Two reviewers independently selected candidate studies, extracted data and assessed study quality. Studies were categorised according to study quality, setting, sample, intervention characteristics and findings.

RESULTS

Of the 18 included studies, 13 (72%) were non-experimental. Nine studies (50%) reported data on the reliability and/or validity of the intervention. Eight studies (44%) reported on the feasibility of the intervention. Only 4 studies (22%) reported statistically significant effects. The use of a simulation-based training programme and well-designed incident reporting systems led to a statistically significant improvement of safety knowledge and attitudes by ED staff and an increase of incident reports within EDs, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Characteristics of the interventions included in this review (eg, anonymous incident reporting and validation of incident reports by an independent party) could provide useful input for the design of an effective tool to govern patient safety in EMS organisations and EDs. However, executives cannot rely on a robust set of evidence-based and feasible tools to govern patient safety within their emergency care organisation and in the chain of emergency care. Established strategies from other high-risk sectors need to be evaluated in emergency care settings, using an experimental design with valid outcome measures to strengthen the evidence base.

Voluntary Medical Incident Reporting Tool to Improve Physician Reporting of Medical Errors in an Emergency Department

Introduction

Medical errors are frequently under-reported, yet their appropriate analysis, coupled with remediation, is essential for continuous quality improvement. The emergency department (ED) is recognized as a complex and chaotic environment prone to errors. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a web-based ED-specific incident reporting system using an iterative process.

Methods

A web-based, password-protected tool was developed by members of a quality assurance committee for ED providers to report incidents that they believe could impact patient safety.

Results

The utilization of this system in one residency program with two academic sites resulted in an increase from 81 reported incidents in 2009, the first year of use, to 561 reported incidents in 2012. This is an increase in rate of reported events from 0.07% of all ED visits to 0.44% of all ED visits. In 2012, faculty reported 60% of all incidents, while residents and midlevel providers reported 24% and 16% respectively. The most commonly reported incidents were delays in care and management concerns.

Conclusion

Error reporting frequency can be dramatically improved by using a web-based, user-friendly, voluntary, and non-punitive reporting system.

[Learning from a critical incident reporting system in the pediatric intensive care unit]

BACKGROUND

To record and analyze critical incidents is of paramount importance for any organization dedicated to improving patient safety. Therefore, many hospitals have implemented a critical incident reporting system (CIRS). However, the impact, benefits and use of such CIRS systems on patient safety have often been reported to be unsatisfactory.

AIM

What have we learned over the past decade about the effective and optimal use of a CIRS?

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Following the Yorkshire contributory factors framework, the potential benefits of a CIRS are illustrated with selected examples from the neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit. Based on a literature search in PubMed from January 2000 to December 2014 this article also describes critical factors and concepts for the successful use of a CIRS.

RESULTS

A positive mind-set towards errors, high psychological safety and the conviction that a CIRS can be beneficial are important factors to encourage individual healthcare personnel to report critical incidents and learn from errors. On the part of the organization, adequate resources of personnel, systematic analysis of the reported incidents as well as dissemination of the results and implementation of safety improvement strategies are critical factors for the effective use of a CIRS. All incidents with potential relevance for patient safety should be reported. The categorization of the reported incidents facilitates the analysis and identification of relevant conclusions. As an organization dedicated to improve patient safety we have to learn from errors as well as from successes.

CONCLUSION

The successful use of a CIRS depends on the motivation of individual healthcare providers as well as on organizational features that encourage critical incident reporting.

Using voluntary reports from physicians to learn from diagnostic errors in emergency medicine

OBJECTIVES

Diagnostic errors are common in the emergency department (ED), but few studies have comprehensively evaluated their types and origins. We analysed incidents reported by ED physicians to determine disease conditions, contributory factors and patient harm associated with ED-related diagnostic errors.

METHODS

Between 1 March 2009 and 31 December 2013, ED physicians reported 509 incidents using a department-specific voluntary incident-reporting system that we implemented at two large academic hospital-affiliated EDs. For this study, we analysed 209 incidents related to diagnosis. A quality assurance team led by an ED physician champion reviewed each incident and interviewed physicians when necessary to confirm the presence/absence of diagnostic error and to determine the contributory factors. We generated descriptive statistics quantifying disease conditions involved, contributory factors and patient harm from errors.

RESULTS

Among the 209 incidents, we identified 214 diagnostic errors associated with 65 unique diseases/conditions, including sepsis (9.6%), acute coronary syndrome (9.1%), fractures (8.6%) and vascular injuries (8.6%). Contributory factors included cognitive (n=317), system related (n=192) and non-remedial (n=106). Cognitive factors included faulty information verification (41.3%) and faulty information processing (30.6%) whereas system factors included high workload (34.4%) and inefficient ED processes (40.1%). Non-remediable factors included atypical presentation (31.3%) and the patients' inability to provide a history (31.3%). Most errors (75%) involved multiple factors. Major harm was associated with 34/209 (16.3%) of reported incidents.

CONCLUSIONS

Most diagnostic errors in ED appeared to relate to common disease conditions. While sustaining diagnostic error reporting programmes might be challenging, our analysis reveals the potential value of such systems in identifying targets for improving patient safety in the ED.