Attitudes and barriers to incident reporting: a collaborative hospital study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess awareness and use of the current incident reporting system and to identify factors inhibiting reporting of incidents in hospitals.


METHODS
Anonymous survey of 186 doctors and 587 nurses from diverse clinical settings in six South Australian hospitals (response rate = 70.7% and 73.6%, respectively).


METHODS
Knowledge and use of the current reporting system; barriers to incident reporting.


RESULTS
Most doctors and nurses (98.3%) were aware that their hospital had an incident reporting system. Nurses were more likely than doctors to know how to access a report (88.3% v 43.0%; relative risk (RR) 2.05, 95% CI 1.61 to 2.63), to have ever completed a report (89.2% v 64.4%; RR 1.38, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.61), and to know what to do with the completed report (81.9% v 49.7%; RR 1.65, 95% CI 1.27 to 2.13). Staff were more likely to report incidents which are habitually reported, often witnessed, and usually associated with immediate outcomes such as patient falls and medication errors requiring corrective treatment. Near misses and incidents which occur over time such as pressure ulcers and DVT due to inadequate prophylaxis were least likely to be reported. The most frequently stated barrier to reporting for doctors and nurses was lack of feedback (57.7% and 61.8% agreeing, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Both doctors and nurses believe they should report most incidents, but nurses do so more frequently than doctors. To improve incident reporting, especially among doctors, clarification is needed of which incidents should be reported, the process needs to be simplified, and feedback given to reporters.
Evans
S M
SM
Department of Medicine, University of Adelaide, South Australia. sue.evans@med.monash.edu.au
Berry
J G
JG
Smith
B J
BJ
Esterman
A
A
Selim
P
P
O'Shaughnessy
J
J
DeWit
M
M
D000058:Accidental Falls; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors; D009726:Nurses; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010820:Physicians; D003668:Pressure Ulcer; D012306:Risk; D012308:Risk Management / Q000639:trends*; D017751:Safety Management; D013021:South Australia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires