patient safety issue report

by Jerrod Franecki 8 min read

Report a Patient Safety Concern or File a Complaint

19 hours ago One Renaissance Boulevard. Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois 60181. By policy, The Joint Commission cannot accept copies of medical records, photos or billing invoices and other related personal information. These documents will be shredded upon receipt. Download the form for reporting a patient safety concern by mail. >> Go To The Portal


To report any safety concerns, please use the following tips: For immediate hazards, call existing emergency phone numbers. For urgent patient safety concerns, contact your supervisor.

Full Answer

What exactly is patient safety?

What Exactly Is Patient Safety?

  • INTRODUCTION. A defining realization of the 1990s was that, despite all the known power of modern medicine to cure and ameliorate illness, hospitals were not safe places for healing.
  • INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF PATIENT SAFETY. Critical assumptions in health care were rewritten by patient safety thinking. ...
  • A PATIENT SAFETY MODEL OF HEALTH CARE. ...

How to manage patient safety?

  • Appropriate use of prophylaxis to prevent venous thromboembolism in patients at risk
  • Use of perioperative beta-blockers in appropriate patients to prevent perioperative morbidity and mortality
  • Use of maximum sterile barriers while placing central intravenous catheters to prevent infections

More items...

What is a patient safety reporting tool?

The Patient Safety Reporting System (PSRS) is a voluntary, confidential, non-punitive reporting system available to collaborate with both private and federal medical facilities..

What is a patient safety reporting program?

The Patient Safety Reporting System (PSRS) is a non-punitive, confidential, and voluntary program which collects and analyzes safety reports submitted by healthcare personnel. Staff can report close calls, suggestions, and incident / event related information and data to improve patient safety.

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What is a patient safety report?

Patient Safety Reporting (PSR) gives military treatment facility personnel the ability to anonymously report medical events that impact the safety of patients.

What are some patient safety issues?

Patient safety issues and concernsMedication/drug errors. ... Healthcare-associated infections. ... Surgical errors and postoperative complications. ... Diagnostic errors. ... Laboratory/blood testing errors. ... Fall injuries. ... Communication errors. ... Patient identification errors.

What should be included in a patient report?

A structured format incorporating elements of background information, medical history, physical examination, specimens obtained, treatment provided and opinion is suggested.

Which types of events should be reported in a safety report?

All team members are required to participate in the detection and reporting of any error, medication error, near miss, hazardous/unsafe condition, process failure, injuries involving patients, visitors and staff or a sentinel event.

What are safety issues in nursing?

Patient safety issues were commonly described surrounding the following: lack of basic nursing care, in particular in relation to feeding, hydration and pressure area care; misdiagnosis, often due to diagnostic overshadowing and communication difficulties; delayed investigations and treatment; non-treatment decisions ...

Is patient safety an issue?

The burden of harm Every year, millions of patients suffer injuries or die because of unsafe and poor-quality health care. Many medical practices and risks associated with health care are emerging as major challenges for patient safety and contribute significantly to the burden of harm due to unsafe care.

How do you write a patient care report?

There are seven elements (at a minimum) that we have identified as essential components to documenting a well written and complete narrative.Dispatch & Response Summary. ... Scene Summary. ... HPI/Physical Exam. ... Interventions. ... Status Change. ... Safety Summary. ... Disposition.

How do you write a patient report?

III. Patient case presentationDescribe the case in a narrative form.Provide patient demographics (age, sex, height, weight, race, occupation).Avoid patient identifiers (date of birth, initials).Describe the patient's complaint.List the patient's present illness.List the patient's medical history.More items...•

What is a patient report?

A patient report is a medical report that is comprehensive and encompasses a patient's medical history and personal details. It's often written when they go to a health service provider for a medical consultation. Government or health insurance providers may also request it if they need it for administration reasons.

What is an example of a patient safety event?

A patient safety incident occurs but does not result in patient harm – for example a blood transfusion being given to the wrong patient but the patient was unharmed because the blood was compatible. or expected treatment – for example he/she did not receive his/her medications as ordered.

What should be documented in the safety event report for this patient?

Filling Out an Effective Incident Report Include the full names of those involved and any witnesses, as well as any information you have about how, or if, they were affected. Add other relevant details, such as your immediate response—calling for help, for example, and notifying the patient's physician.

What is the most common type of incident reporting event?

medication incidentsThe most common types were medication incidents (29%), falls (14%), operative incidents (15%) and miscellaneous incidents (16%); 59% seemed preventable and preventability was not clear for 32%. Among the potentially preventable incidents, 43% involved nurses, 16% physicians and 19% other types of providers.

What is patient safety?

Patient Safety is a health care discipline that emerged with the evolving complexity in health care systems and the resulting rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care.

Why is patient safety important?

Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health services. Indeed, there is a clear consensus that quality health services across the world should be effective, safe and people-centred. In addition, to realize the benefits of quality health care, health services must be timely, equitable, integrated and efficient.

What is the WHO patient safety and risk management unit?

The Patient Safety and Risk Management unit at WHO has been instrumental in advancing and shaping the patient safety agenda globally by focusing on driving improvements in some key strategic areas through:

When did WHO start working on patient safety?

WHO's work on patient safety began with the launch of the World Alliance for Patient Safety in 2004 and this work has continued to evolve over time. WHO has facilitated improvements in the safety of health care within Member States through establishment of Global Patient Safety Challenges.

When is World Patient Safety Day?

Recognizing that Patient Safety is a global health priority, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution on Patient Safety which endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day to be observed annually by Member States on 17 September.

How many people die from sepsis in the world?

Sepsis is frequently not diagnosed early enough to save a patient’s life. Because these infections are often resistant to antibiotics, they can rapidly lead to deteriorating clinical conditions, affecting an estimated 31 million people worldwide and causing over 5 million deaths per year (18).

What is patient safety event reporting?

Patient safety event reporting systems are ubiquito us in hospitals and are a mainstay of efforts to detect patient safety events and quality problems. Incident reporting is frequently used as a general term for all voluntary patient safety event reporting systems, which rely on those involved in events to provide detailed information. Initial reports often come from the frontline personnel directly involved in an event or the actions leading up to it (e.g., the nurse, pharmacist, or physician caring for a patient when a medication error occurred), rather than management or patient safety professionals. Voluntary event reporting is therefore a passive form of surveillance for near misses or unsafe conditions, in contrast to more active methods of surveillance such as direct observation of providers or chart review using trigger tools. The Patient Safety Primer Detection of Safety Hazards provides a detailed discussion of other methods of identifying errors and latent safety problems.

What is the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act?

The legislation provides confidentiality and privilege protections for patient safety information when health care providers work with new expert entities known as Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs). Health care providers may choose to work with a PSO and specify the scope and volume of patient safety information to share with a PSO. Because health care providers can set limits on the ability of PSOs to use and share their information, this system does not follow the pattern of traditional voluntary reporting systems. However, health care providers and PSOs may aggregate patient safety event information on a voluntary basis, and AHRQ will establish a network of patient safety databases that can receive and aggregate nonidentifiable data that are submitted voluntarily. AHRQ has also developed Common Formats —standardized definitions and reporting formats for patient safety events—in order to facilitate aggregation of patient safety information. Since their initial release in 2009, the Common Formats have been updated and expanded to cover a broad range of safety events.

What is AHRQ common format?

AHRQ has also developed Common Formats —standardized definitions and reporting formats for patient safety events— in order to facilitate aggregation of patient safety information. Since their initial release in 2009, the Common Formats have been updated and expanded to cover a broad range of safety events.

How is event reporting used in health care?

A 2016 article contrasted event reporting in health care with event reporting in other high-risk industries (such as aviation), pointing out that event reporting systems in health care have placed too much emphasis on collecting reports instead of learning from the events that have been reported. Event reporting systems are best used as a way of identifying issues that require further, more detailed investigation. While event reporting utilization can be a marker of a positive safety culture within an organization, organizations should resist the temptation to encourage event reporting without a concrete plan for following up on reported events. A PSNet perspective described a framework for incorporating voluntary event reports into a cohesive plan for improving safety. The framework emphasizes analysis of the events and documenting process improvements arising from event analysis, rather than encouraging event reporting for its own sake.

Why are event reports limited?

The spectrum of reported events is limited, in part due to the fact that physicians generally do not utilize voluntary event reporting systems.

Is there a voluntary event reporting system?

Voluntary event reporting systems need not be confined to a single hospital or organization. The United Kingdom's National Patient Safety Agency maintains the National Reporting and Learning System, a nationwide voluntary event reporting system, and the MEDMARX voluntary medication error reporting system in the U.S.

Why is patient monitoring important in nursing?

Patient Safety Issues in Nursing. Patient monitoring also suffers (mostly due to nurse case overload) – negatively impacting patient safety. Improved patient monitoring can help to detect problems that arise during treatment within the care unit, and enforce rehabilitation measures before a condition worsens.

What is the need for discussion and priority setting both at the provider and the national level?

There is a need for discussions and priority setting both at the provider and the national level to design and dictate safety efforts and policies. In fact, a few states have established new legislation regarding hospital staffing to address nurse/physician burnout, but much more needs to be done.

How does antibiotic resistance affect healthcare?

Antibiotic resistance can cause significant declines in patient safety and quality of care in hospitals. Implementing prevention measures, among other efforts to improve patient outcomes, should be a top priority for healthcare leaders.

How to prevent antibiotic resistance?

But it’s not just healthcare facilities that need to take a part in combating this phenomenon – policymakers, the agricultural sector, and patients play a critical role. Health professionals can help to prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance through: 1 Ensuring that the healthcare environment, their hands and instruments are clean 2 Prescribing and dispensing antibiotics ONLY when they are really needed 3 Reporting antibiotic-resistance to surveillance teams 4 Teaching patients about antibiotic resistance; how and why they should take antibiotics correctly 5 Educating patients on the importance of vaccination, safe sex, hand washing, and other prevention strategies

Why is it important to wash hands before and after patient contact?

Washing hands before and after patient contact is one of the basic infection control measures hospitals can enforce as a policy. Hand washing can stop the spread of bacteria, especially when all parties are diligent.

What is EHR in healthcare?

1. EHR information safety and integration. EHRs (electronic health records) are completely changing the climate of modern healthcare systems and facilities – giving doctors and nurses the ability to provide safer care. This is accomplished by being able to make informed decisions based on data, rather than assumptions.

What percentage of physicians show burnout?

43.9% of U.S. physicians showed signs of burnout in 2017, according to a study by AMA and Mayo Clinic. The primary source of burnout stems from the extensive data entry and related clerical work that physicians cover on a daily basis.

What percentage of emergency physicians are experiencing burnout?

In a nationwide survey from August, 58 percent of physicians expressed feelings of burnout, an increase from 40 percent in 2018. A separate survey in October found 72 percent of emergency physicians are experiencing more burnout at work.

How many hospitals have staffing shortages?

In mid-November, more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide reported serious staffing shortages, according to HHS data obtained by The Atlantic. In some parts of the U.S., staffing shortages have been so dire, some health systems have asked exposed employees to continue working if they are asymptomatic.

Why do people delay seeking emergency care?

Many patients have delayed seeking emergency care for health issues such as inflamed appendices, chest pain or bowel obstructions and often show up past optimal treatment window times. This has led to increased risks for complications and in some cases, unnecessary death.

How much did mammograms fall in April?

Mammograms, for example, fell by 95 percent during the second week of April compared to the same period last year. Additionally, many oncologists have reported diagnosing higher proportions of advanced-stage disease compared to last year. This leads to more difficult treatment plans and higher death risks.

When was the report "Man is fallible" released?

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in 1999 entitled "Man is fallible: create a safe health system" in relation to the incidence of medical errors in United States, and consequently, initiated widespread international change in the field of patient safety (2).

Is patient safety a threat?

Despite increased attention toward the quality of health care services, there are still numerous threats to patient safety in healthcare settings. Since patient safety is multidimensional and grounded in ethical and legal imperatives, both ethical and legal challenges should be taken into account.

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Background

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Patient safety event reporting systems are ubiquitous in hospitals and are a mainstay of efforts to detect patient safety events and quality problems. Incident reporting is frequently used as a general term for all voluntary patient safety event reporting systems, which rely on those involved in events to provide detailed infor…
See more on psnet.ahrq.gov

Characteristics of Incident Reporting Systems

  • An effective event reporting system should have four key attributes: While traditional event reporting systems have been paper based, technological enhancements have allowed the development of Web-based systems and systems that can receive information from electronic medical records. Specialized systems have also been developed for specific settings, such as th…
See more on psnet.ahrq.gov

Limitations of Event Reporting

  • The limitations of voluntary event reporting systems have been well documented. Event reports are subject to selection bias due to their voluntary nature. Compared with medical record review and direct observation, event reports capture only a fraction of events and may not reliably identify serious events. The spectrum of reported events is limited, in part due to the fact that ph…
See more on psnet.ahrq.gov

Using Event Reports to Improve Safety

  • A 2016 article contrasted event reporting in health care with event reporting in other high-risk industries (such as aviation), pointing out that event reporting systems in health care have placed too much emphasis on collecting reports instead of learning from the events that have been reported. Event reporting systems are best used as a way of identifying issues that require furth…
See more on psnet.ahrq.gov

Current Context

  • At the national level, regulations implementing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act became effective on January 19, 2009. The legislation provides confidentiality and privilege protections for patient safety information when health care providers work with new expert entities known as Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs). Health care providers may choose to wo…
See more on psnet.ahrq.gov

EHR Information Safety and Integration

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EHRs (electronic health records) are completely changing the climate of modern healthcare systems and facilities – giving doctors and nurses the ability to provide safer care. This is accomplished by being able to make informed decisions based on data, rather than assumptions. When doctors and nurses can seamlessly acce…
See more on bfwinc.com

Hygiene and Spread of Infections

  • The CDC reports that1 in every 25 patientsgets a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) during their hospital visit, totaling up to 722,000 infections a year. Of that number 75,000 patients die of these infections. Even in a state-of-the-art healthcare facility, the number one prevention technique is a simple one… Washing hands before and after pati...
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Nurse Staffing Ratios and Burnout

  • Plain and simple, the inability of most hospitals to maintain the right nurse-patient ratios leads to nurse burnout – with the lack of personnel to keep up with demand also leading to nursing shortagesacross the US. This snowballs into poor patient care, medical errors, and other safety concerns that could reduce recovery and survival rates, especially at a time like this when hospit…
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Antibiotic Resistance

  • Healthcare is facing a critical problem with antibiotic resistance. New bacteria strains are emerging and spreading rapidly, limiting the ability to treat infectious diseases. Today’s infections, such as blood poisoning, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhea, are getting increasingly difficult to treat, and are leading to critical hospital patient safety issues. Antibiotic resistance st…
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Opioid Addiction

  • The ongoing opioid addiction and overdose crisis poses new sets of challenges for healthcare organizations. Reducing rates of addiction to opioids is now a matter of critical concern. Prescribing characteristics are the main risk factors for opioid addiction post-surgery or post-injury treatment. A study in JAMA Networkshowed that out of 46,399 opioid-free injured workers…
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Physician Burnout

  • 43.9% of U.S. physicians showed signs of burnout in 2017, according to a study byAMA and Mayo Clinic. The primary source of burnout stems from the extensive data entry and related clerical work that physicians cover on a daily basis. Close to 50% of a physician’s day is spent doing paperwork – and a mere 27% interacting with patients (according to a 2016 study in the Annals …
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Drug and Medical Devices Shortages

  • Drug and medical supply shortages are areas of focus for healthcare providers – as nationwide shortages lead to cancellation of surgeries and treatment. Moreover, COVID-19 has affected the global supply chain and has created some shortages of medical products, due to factors such as virus outbreaks in factories, which have resulted in workers needing to be quarantined. Lower pr…
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