Abstract
Objective. To explore the reasons for not reporting patient safety incidents in general practice. Design. Qualitative interviews with general practitioners and members of the project group. Setting. General practice clinics in the Region of Northern Jutland in Denmark. Subjects. Twelve general practitioners. Main outcome measures. The experiences and reflections of the involved professionals with regard to system use and non-use. Results. While most respondents were initially positive towards the idea of reporting and learning from patient safety incidents, they actually reported very few incidents. The major reasons for the low reporting rates are found to be a perceived lack of practical usefulness, issues of time and effort in a busy clinic with competing priorities, and considerations of appropriateness in relation to other professionals. Conclusion. The results suggest that the visions of formal, comprehensive, and systematic reporting of (and learning from) patient safety incidents will be quite difficult to realize in general practice. Future studies should investigate how various ways of organizing incident reporting at the regional level influence local activities of reporting and learning in general practice.
Highlights
During the last decade issues of patient safety have come to occupy a prominent position on the political agenda in health care, and in several countries systems for incident reporting have been promoted as a means to improve patient safety [1]
While previous studies [3,4] have reported positive attitudes to incident reporting among Danish GPs, the results of this study suggest that formal reporting of patient safety incidents may be more attractive to GPs as an idea than as an integrated activity in a busy clinic where several concerns and tasks compete for attention
In practice the GPs did not prioritize systematic incident reporting as a tool to improve patient safety, and for several GPs reporting represented a formalization of professional relations, which was often not found to be worthwhile and/or appropriate in the situation at hand
Summary
During the last decade issues of patient safety have come to occupy a prominent position on the political agenda in health care, and in several countries systems for incident reporting have been promoted as a means to improve patient safety [1] Such systems have mostly been implemented in the hospital sector, but recently steps have been taken to include the primary sector as well. In order to establish a realistic impression of the prospects, conditions, and challenges for implementing formal and systematic reporting of (and learning from) incidents in general practice, it is necessary to investigate specific attempts to promote such reporting. While a small number of GPs initially expressed (Received 14 July 2011; accepted 10 September 2012)
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