Establishing a global learning community for incident-reporting systems

Qual Saf Health Care. 2010 Oct;19(5):446-51. doi: 10.1136/qshc.2009.037739.

Abstract

Background: Incident-reporting systems (IRS) collect snapshots of hazards, mistakes and system failures occurring in healthcare. These data repositories are a cornerstone of patient safety improvement. Compared with systems in other high-risk industries, healthcare IRS are fragmented and isolated, and have not established best practices for implementation and utilisation.

Discussion: Patient safety experts from eight countries convened in 2008 to establish a global community to advance the science of learning from mistakes. This convenience sample of experts all had experience managing large incident-reporting systems. This article offers guidance through a presentation of expert discussions about methods to identify, analyse and prioritise incidents, mitigate hazards and evaluate risk reduction.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Documentation*
  • Humans
  • Internationality*
  • Learning*
  • Medical Errors*
  • Quality Assurance, Health Care / methods