PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - D O Farley
AU  - A Haviland
AU  - S Champagne
AU  - A K Jain
AU  - J B Battles
AU  - W B Munier
AU  - J M Loeb
TI  - Adverse-event-reporting practices by US hospitals: results of a national survey
AID  - 10.1136/qshc.2007.024638
DP  - 2008 Dec 01
TA  - Quality and Safety in Health Care
PG  - 416--423
VI  - 17
IP  - 6
4099  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/17/6/416.short
4100  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/17/6/416.full
SO  - Qual Saf Health Care2008 Dec 01; 17
AB  - Context: Little is known about hospitals’ adverse-event-reporting systems, or how they use reported data to improve practices. This information is needed to assess effects of national patient-safety initiatives, including implementation of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA). This survey generated baseline information on the characteristics of hospital adverse-event-reporting systems and processes, for use in assessing progress in improvements to reporting.Methods: The Adverse Event Reporting Survey, developed by Westat, was administered in September 2005 through January 2006, using a mixed-mode (mail/telephone) survey with a stratified random sample of 2050 non-federal US hospitals. Risk managers were the respondents. An 81% response rate was obtained, for a sample of 1652 completed surveys.Results: Virtually all hospitals reported they have centralised adverse-event-reporting systems, although characteristics varied. Scores on four performance indexes suggest that only 32% of hospitals have established environments that support reporting, only 13% have broad staff involvement in reporting adverse events, and 20–21% fully distribute and consider summary reports on identified events. Because survey responses are self-reported by risk managers, these may be optimistic assessments of hospital performance.Conclusions: Survey findings document the current status of hospital adverse-event-reporting systems and point to needed improvements in reporting processes. PSQIA liability protections for hospitals reporting data to patient-safety organisations should also help stimulate improvements in hospitals’ internal reporting processes. Other mechanisms that encourage hospitals to strengthen their reporting systems, for example, strong patient-safety programmes, also would be useful.