Most in-hospital adverse events unreported: OIG

Here is an article from ModernHealthcare.com  that addresses the failure to report events causing patient

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harm.  The article goes on to point out reasons for such a failure and the reasoning does make sense.  However, I feel quite strongly that if nurses had the time to make reports and if those reports were simple and easy, there would be quite a few made.  As it is, nurses are drowning in patient loads, paperwork, and have little to no time to eat or use the restroom, so forgive me if we sometimes don’t stay after our shift to enter cumbersome reports into the computer about events that really did not cause harm but could have.

Please read this article and I would love to hear your take on this topic.

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By Maureen McKinney

Posted: January 6, 2012 – 4:00 pm ET

Read more: Most in-hospital adverse events unreported: OIG – Healthcare business news and research | Modern Healthcare http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20120106/NEWS/301069970#ixzz1isnhQ09U
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The vast majority of in-hospital adverse events go unreported by staff, according to a report from HHS’ inspector general’s office (PDF).

Using a month of survey data from a sample of 189 hospitals, the inspector general’s office found that hospitals’ voluntary incident reporting systems captured only about 14% of events that cause patient harm, such as medication errors. Federal investigators attributed low reporting rates, at least in part, to poor knowledge among hospital staff about what patient harm actually means.

“For example, staff reported only one of 17 sample events related to catheter usage (e.g., infection and urinary retention), a common cause of harm to Medicare beneficiaries,” according to the report.Other types of events that went unreported included cases of excessive bleeding related to misuse of blood thinning medications, and hospital-acquired infections.Incident reporting systems are a requirement for participation in Medicare, but a lack of uniform requirements—such as lists staff can use to identify patient harms—can damage the systems’ reliability, according to the report.“Because hospitals rely on incident reporting systems to track and analyze events, improving the usefulness of these systems is critical to hospitals’ efforts to improve patient safety,” the report said.

The report urged the CMS and HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to develop a list of adverse events for hospitals to use. Additionally, the office said, the CMS should reassess its methods for judging hospital compliance with the reporting-system requirement.

Read more: Most in-hospital adverse events unreported: OIG – Healthcare business news and research | Modern Healthcare http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20120106/NEWS/301069970#ixzz1isnWIdMj
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Related articles

• Most Hospital Errors Go Unreported, Report Finds (foxnews.com)
• Medicare Patients: Harmed By Unreported Hospital Errors, Report Finds (aarp.org)
• Study of Medicare Patients Finds Most Hospital Errors Unreported (nytimes.com)
• Review: Most hospital errors not reported (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Report: Hospital Errors Often Unreported – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)

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