German critical incident reporting system database of prehospital emergency medicine: Analysis of reported communication and medication errors between 2005-2015.
BACKGROUND
Communication failure in prehospital emergency medicine can affect patient safety as it does in other areas of medicine as well. We analyzed the database of the critical incident reporting system for prehospital emergency medicine in Germany retrospectively regarding communication errors.


METHODS
Experts of prehospital emergency medicine and risk management screened the database for verbal communication failure, non-verbal communication failure and missing communication at all.


RESULTS
Between 2005 and 2015, 845 reports were analyzed, of which 247 reports were considered to be related to communication failure. An arbitrary classification resulted in six different kinds: 1) no acknowledgement of a suggestion; 2) medication error; 3) miscommunication with dispatcher; 4) utterance heard/understood improperly; 5) missing information transfer between two persons; and 6) other communication failure.


CONCLUSIONS
Communication deficits can lead to critical incidents in prehospital emergency medicine and are a very important aspect in patient safety.
Department of Emergency Medicine, University Hospital Jena, Jena 07747, Germany.
Christian
C
Hohenstein
Department of Emergency Medicine, Westküstenklinikum Heide, Heide 25746, Germany.
Thomas
T
Fleischmann
Department of Emergency Medicine, Ubbo-Emmius-Klinik, Aurich 26603, Germany.
Peter
P
Rupp
Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Jena, Jena 07747, Germany.
Dorothea
D
Hempel
Department of Emergency Medicine, University Hospital Jena, Jena 07747, Germany.
Sophia
S
Wilk
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Jena, Jena 07747, Germany.
Johannes
J
Winning
Communication error; Critical incident reporting system; Medication error; Prehospital emergency medicine