Abstract
BackgroundPatient Safety Incidents occur frequently in critical care units, contribute to patient harm, compromise quality of patient care and increase healthcare costs. It is essential that Patient Safety Incidents in critical care units are continually measured to plan for quality improvement interventions.AimTo analyse Patient Safety Incident reporting system, including the evidence of types, frequencies, and patient outcomes of reported incidents in critical care units.SettingThe study was conducted in the critical care units of ten hospitals of eThekwini district, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.MethodsA quantitative approach using a descriptive cross sectional survey was adopted to collect data from the registered nurses working in critical care units of randomly selected hospitals. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 270 registered nurses of which 224 (83%) returned completed questionnaires. A descriptive statistical analysis was initially conducted, then the Pearson Chi-square test was performed between the participating hospitals.FindingsOne thousand and seventeen (n = 1017) incidents in ten hospitals were self-reported. Of these incidents, 18% (n = 70) were insignificant, 35% (n = 90) minor, 25% (n = 75) moderate, 12% (n = 32) major and 10% (n = 26) catastrophic. Patient Safety Incidents were classified into six categories: (a) Hospital-related incidents (42% [n = 416]); (b) Patient care-related incidents (30% [n = 310]); (c) (Death 12% [n = 124]); (d) Medication-related incidents, (7% [n = 75]); (e) Blood product-related incidents (5% [n = 51]) and (f) Procedure-related incidents (4% [n = 41]).ConclusionThis study’s findings indicating 1017 Patient Safety Incidents of predominantly serious nature, (47% considering moderate, major and catastrophic) are a cause for concern.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundThe high occurrence of Patient Safety Incidents (PSIs) leading to preventable deaths remains a global concern (Bashir et al 2019; Guillod 2013)
According to James (2013), and Wassenaar et al (2014), there is a rising global concern that approximately 400 000 patients per year suffer from preventable harms that contribute to death
The distribution of participants according to critical care units (CCUs) they were working in is presented in Table 1, which demonstrates that the majority (130 [58%]) of registered nurses (RNs) were from multidisciplinary CCUs, which included general, surgical CCUs, neuro or burns CCUs, surgical trauma and medical CCUs, followed by neonatal CCUs (46 [20.5%]) and cardiac CCUs (37 [16.5%]); the latter included coronary care and cardiothoracic CCUs
Summary
Introduction and BackgroundThe high occurrence of Patient Safety Incidents (PSIs) leading to preventable deaths remains a global concern (Bashir et al 2019; Guillod 2013). In the United States, PSIs were recently estimated to cause up to 98 000 preventable deaths each year (James 2013). This high rate of PSIs has attracted significant attention from the public, medical providers and health care payers (Bauman & Hyzy 2014; Gonçalves et al 2012; James 2013; Wassenaar, Schouten & Schoonhoven 2014). According to James (2013), and Wassenaar et al (2014), there is a rising global concern that approximately 400 000 patients per year suffer from preventable harms that contribute to death. It is essential that Patient Safety Incidents in critical care units are continually measured to plan for quality improvement interventions
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