Are Incident Reporting Systems in Healthcare Systems a Requirement for Improving Patient Safety? A Review

Abstract

Adverse events such as medical errors, injuries, or equipment failures which could harm patients, caregivers, or other individuals or has the potential to harm them are known as medical incidents. Avoidance of unintended or unexpected harm to people during the provision of healthcare is mandatory. In healthcare settings incident reporting refers to collecting healthcare incident data with the aim of enhancing patient safety and quality of care. This review aims to discuss the practice, usefulness and drawbacks of Incident Reporting System (IRS) in healthcare systems. The history of adverse events assessment in hospital setup runs back till 1980s. Since then, many developed countries have put emphasis on the establishment of IRSs in their health systems. In 2005, the World Health Organization issued a guideline to be followed on the establishment of incident reporting systems in healthcare organizations. Benefits of incident reporting in healthcare systems include prevention of reoccurrences of adverse events, provision an updated knowledge and understanding about risk events, create lessons and promote safety-minded culture. It saves a considerable sum of money of the healthcare budget in the long run. Under-reporting is the main challenge in incident reporting. It is recommended to implement comprehensive IRSs in health services in all developing countries in order to drive good medical practice and to ensure the safety and quality of patient care.