Hospital incident reporting systems not up to snuff; events fall through the cracks

According to a recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) ­report, Hospital Incident Reporting Systems Do Not Capture Most Patient Harm (http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00091.pdf), hospital reporting systems aren’t doing their job. The OIG surveyed 189 hospitals regarding their use of incident reporting systems and learned that hospital staff did not report 86% of events, partly because staff often misinterpret what constitutes patient harm.

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