Patient and Staff Safety: Voluntary Reporting

Abstract

Central to efforts to assure the quality of patient care in hospitals is having accurate data about quality and patient problems. The purpose was to describe the reporting rates of medication administration errors (MAE), patient falls, and occupational injuries. A questionnaire was distributed to staff nurses (N = 1105 respondents) in a national sample of 25 hospitals. This addressed voluntary reporting, work environment factors, and reasons for not reporting occurrences. More than 80% indicated that all MAEs should be reported, but only 36% indicated that near misses should be reported. Perceived levels of actual reporting were: 47% of MAEs, 77% of patient falls, 48% of needlesticks, 22% of other exposures to body fluids, and 17% of back injuries. Administrative response to reports, personal fears, and unit quality management were related to reporting. Patient and staff safety occurrences are underreported. Strong quality management processes and positive responses to reports of occurrences may increase reporting and enhance safety.

Near miss and minor occupational injury: Does it share a common causal pathway with major injury?

“…This may also explain why Heinrich's [1950] iceberg model of near miss events being more likely to occur and more frequent than minor injury events and minor injuries more likely to occur than major injuries is not discernable form these results. In the healthcare sector underreporting of occupational injuries is a common occurrence [Weddle, 1996;Blegen et al, 2004;Siddharthan et al, 2006]. This could affect the validity of the results as certain types of injuries may be more often reported as near misses or minor injuries than others.…”

Occupational Exposure to Blood and Other Body Fluids Among Healthcare Workers in Three Teaching Hospitals, Southeast Iran

“…The major reasons for not reporting NSIs include dissatisfaction with the administrative response to reports (12), the estimation that the transmission risk is low (24), a perceived lack of time (24), personal fears, and hospital quality management (25). Factors contributing to the underreporting of NSIs need to be addressed through strong quality management processes and positive responses to reports of BBF exposure occurrences (25). These measures may in turn increase reporting and enhance HCWs' safety (25).…”

“…Factors contributing to the underreporting of NSIs need to be addressed through strong quality management processes and positive responses to reports of BBF exposure occurrences (25). These measures may in turn increase reporting and enhance HCWs' safety (25).…”

Competence and Certification of Registered Nurses and Safety of Patients in Intensive Care Units

“…21 Measuring the relationship between competence of individual registered nurses and safety of patients is methodologically difficult because nursing is practiced and characterized as a group; consequently, individual competency of registered nurses must be aggregated to the patient care unit level for purposes of study. [22][23][24] The nursing work group comprises individual registered nurses and other personnel who have different professional competencies. The proportion of certified staff registered nurses in a unit, represented in this study as registered nurse work group competence, theoretically incorporates individual nurses' competence at the bedside within a group practice model.…”