The Development and Implementation of Patient Safety Information Systems (PSIS)

Patient Safety Reporting System

There are many ways to improve patient safety using information technology (Bates & Gawande, 2003). One way of improving safety is improving detection and reporting systems for error and adverse event (IOM, 2003). In small studies, computerized reporting systems have been associated with an increased rate of spontaneous reporting (Dixon, Wielgosz, & Pires, 2002). Computerized reporting streamlines subsequent evaluation by making it is easier to perform analyses and categorize reports in different ways. One university hospital treating more than 25,000 patients annually reported a feasibility study of a computerized voluntary based medical error reporting system in the ambulatory setting (Plews-Ogan et al., 2004). The findings showed that the voluntary based medical error reporting system resulted in a 20-fold increased reporting rate, and physicians reported many of these errors. Also the study suggested that new medical error reporting systems should combine reporting with analytic functions to facilitate analysis. A study by Furakawa et al from Japan found that a computerized medical error reporting system was effective and acceptable to providers, and facilitated analysis (Furukawa, Bunko, Tsuchiya, & Miyamoto, 2003). In another study, a web-based reporting system was developed and implemented for medical workers of 54 hospitals who were working in neonatal intensive care units (Suresh et al., 2004). This system was both voluntary and anonymous. Evaluation of the feasibility and utility of this approach revealed that it was well received, and effective for identifying a wide variety of medical errors. In addition, the approach facilitated cooperative, multidisciplinary studies.