Abstract
BACKGROUND We examined reports to a primary care, ambulatory, patient safety reporting system to describe types of errors reported and differences between anonymous and confidential reports.
METHODS Applied Strategies for Improving Patient Safety (ASIPS) is a demonstration project designed to collect and analyze medical error reports from clinicians and staff in 2 practice-based research networks: the Colorado Research Network (CaReNet) and the High Plains Research Network (HPRN). A major component of ASIPS is a voluntary patient safety reporting system that accepts reports of errors anonymously or confidentially. Reports are coded using a multiaxial taxonomy.
RESULTS Two years into this project, 33 practices with a total of 475 clinicians and staff have participated in ASIPS. Participants submitted 708 reports during this time (66% using the confidential reporting form). We successfully followed up on 84% of the confidential reports of interest within the allotted 10-day time frame. We ended up with 608 relevant, codable reports. Communication problems (70.8%), diagnostic tests (47%), medication problems (35.4%), and both diagnostic tests and medications (13.6%) were the most frequently reported errors. Confidential reports were significantly more likely than anonymous reports to contain codable data.
CONCLUSION A safe and secure reporting system that relies on voluntary reporting from clinicians and staff can be successfully implemented in primary care settings. Information from confidential reports appears to be superior to that from anonymous reports and may be more useful in understanding errors and designing interventions to improve patient safety.
- Received for publication October 17, 2003.
- Revision received February 27, 2004.
- Accepted for publication March 11, 2004.
- © 2004 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
Jump to section
Related Articles
Cited By...
- Implementation and Evaluation of a Laboratory Safety Process Improvement Toolkit
- International recommendations for national patient safety incident reporting systems: an expert Delphi consensus-building process
- Patient safety principles in family medicine residency accreditation standards and curriculum objectives: Implications for primary care
- System hazards in managing laboratory test requests and results in primary care: medical protection database analysis and conceptual model
- Reporting and Using Near-miss Events to Improve Patient Safety in Diverse Primary Care Practices: A Collaborative Approach to Learning from Our Mistakes
- Laboratory Medicine Handoff Gaps Experienced by Primary Care Practices: A Report from the Shared Networks of Collaborative Ambulatory Practices and Partners (SNOCAP)
- A comparison of calls subjected to a malpractice claim versus 'normal calls' within the Swedish Healthcare Direct: a case-control study
- Emotional Impact of Patient Safety Incidents on Family Physicians and Their Office Staff
- Managing Patient Populations in Primary Care: Points of Leverage
- Safety incidents in family medicine
- Central or local incident reporting? A comparative study in Dutch GP out-of-hours services
- Feasibility of centre-based incident reporting in primary healthcare: the SPIEGEL study
- Field Test Results of a New Ambulatory Care Medication Error and Adverse Drug Event Reporting System--MEADERS
- What happens between visits? Adverse and potential adverse events among a low-income, urban, ambulatory population with diabetes
- Safety learning system development--incident reporting component for family practice
- Management of Test Results in Family Medicine Offices
- "Every error counts": a web-based incident reporting and learning system for general practice
- Medication errors reported by US family physicians and their office staff
- Mitigation of patient harm from testing errors in family medicine offices: a report from the American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network
- Testing process errors and their harms and consequences reported from family medicine practices: a study of the American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network
- Patient safety events reported in general practice: a taxonomy
- Evaluation of an intervention aimed at improving voluntary incident reporting in hospitals
- Ambulatory care adverse events and preventable adverse events leading to a hospital admission
- Rural Community Members' Perceptions of Harm from Medical Mistakes: A High Plains Research Network (HPRN) Study
- Stopping the error cascade: a report on ameliorators from the ASIPS collaborative
- Harm Resulting from Inappropriate Telephone Triage in Primary Care
- Anatomy of a patient safety event: a pediatric patient safety taxonomy
- Primary Care Practice-Based Research Networks: Working at the Interface Between Research and Quality Improvement
- Electronic Data Collection Options for Practice-Based Research Networks
- Why Isn't It Better?
- In This Issue: Practice Change and Patient Safety