A multilevel analysis of U.S. hospital patient safety culture relationships with perceptions of voluntary event reporting.

Burlison JD, Quillivan RR, Kath LM, et al. J Patient Saf. 2016 Nov 3; [Epub ahead of print].

Hospitals often rely on voluntary patient safety event reporting systems to identify safety issues. However, significant barriers to reporting exist and most systems capture only a fraction of adverse events. In this study, researchers analyzed data from the AHRQ Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture to better understand what aspects of safety culture might affect event reporting. They found that multiple dimensions of safety culture, including feedback about error, were positively correlated with an increased frequency of events reported. To augment voluntary reporting, the authors recommend that institutions focus on providing feedback to reporters and communicate the resultant improvement efforts. A previous PSNet perspective highlighted the importance of providing feedback with regard to incident reporting.

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