Patient safety event reporting in critical care: a study of three intensive care units.

Objective: To increase patient safety event reporting in three intensive care units (ICUs) using a new voluntary card-based event reporting system and to compare and evaluate observed differences in reporting among healthcare workers across ICUs.

Design: Prospective, single-center, interventional study.

Setting: A medical ICU (19 beds), surgical ICU (24 beds), and cardiothoracic ICU (17 beds) at a 1,371-bed urban teaching hospital.

A new safety event reporting system improves physician reporting in the surgical intensive care unit.

Background: Medical errors are common, and physicians have notably been poor medical error reporters. In the SICU, reporting was generally poor and reporting by physicians was virtually nonexistent. This study was designed to observe changes in error reporting in an SICU when a new card-based system (SAFE) was introduced.

Reporting and classification of patient safety events in a cardiothoracic intensive care unit and cardiothoracic postoperative care unit.

Objectives: The objective was to evaluate a new mechanism for reporting and classifying patient safety events to increase reporting and identify patient safety priorities.

Methods: A voluntary patient safety event reporting system accessible by all health care workers was implemented in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care and Post Anesthesia Care Units. Information collected included patient identifiers; date, time, and location of report and event; type and description of event; and severity score.

Characteristics and circumstances of falls in a hospital setting: a prospective analysis.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of hospital inpatient falls, including characteristics of patients who fall, circumstances of falls, and fall-related injuries.

Design: Prospective descriptive study of inpatient falls. Data on patient characteristics, fall circumstances, and injury were collected through interviews with patients and/or nurses and review of adverse event reports and medical records.