Trends in healthcare incident reporting and relationship to safety and quality data in acute hospitals: results from the National Reporting and Learning System.
Hutchinson A, Young TA, Cooper KL, et al. Trends in healthcare incident reporting and relationship to safety and quality data in acute hospitals: results from the National Reporting and Learning System. Qual Saf Health Care. 2009;18(1):5-10. doi:10.1136/qshc.2007.022400.
Incident reporting systems are an important method for capturing, analyzing, and learning about a broad range of potential safety issues. However, using the number of incident reports filed as a metric of safety is not a proven relationship, and other methods for adverse event surveillance may be more effective. This study examined hospital-based incident reports to the United Kingdom's National Patient Safety Agency and discovered that increased reporting rates were correlated with a more positive safety culture. However, the authors also point out that increased incident reports failed to correlate with standardized mortality ratios, length of stay, or other quality- or safety-related data.