No abstract

Medical errors appear to be common among patients requiring intensive care. Medical events resulting in an error can result in the need for additional life-sustaining treatments and, in some circumstances, can contribute to patient death. Patient healthcare providers appear to be in a unique position to identify medical errors. Institutions should develop formalized methods for the reporting and analysis of medical errors to improve patient care.

This card-based reporting system increased reporting significantly compared with pre-intervention Web-based reporting and revealed significant differences in reporting by healthcare worker and ICU. These differences may reveal important preferences and priorities for reporting medical errors and patient safety events.