Incident reporting is an essential responsibility of healthcare organizations to improve patient safety and quality care today. When done well, incident and event reporting mitigate future risk, reducing potential harm. There are many benefits of incident reporting in healthcare, today we’ll cover 6 of them.

What are Good Catches in Healthcare?

A good catch in healthcare is recognized as an employee interception of a potential safety event before a patient is harmed. Both near misses and good catches present healthcare organizations with opportunities for learning to reduce harmful events and create a culture based on reporting.¹

The Connection Between Purposeful Rounding and the Patient Experience

Purposeful rounding is defined as a proactive, systemic, nurse-driven, evidence-based intervention that helps anticipate and address patient needs, helps create a quality patient-provider relationship[1]. That relationship is a tried-and-true component to improve the patient experience.

What are Healthcare Acquired Conditions?

Healthcare Acquired Conditions (HACs) are illnesses that patients develop while in a healthcare setting being treated for another condition. These conditions can cause excess healthcare spending and serious harm to patients. In fact, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that on any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients is affected by a healthcare acquired condition¹. However, these conditions are preventable when the right precautions are taken.

With the increasing demands on healthcare providers today, even the most skilled and well-trained professionals can make mistakes. Incidents or adverse events in an already high-risk industry can significantly impact patients and providers. Therefore, risk mitigation is crucial for preventing future incidents and improving patient safety.

What is a Just Culture in Nursing?

A just culture in nursing refers to a model of shared accountability that encourages individuals to report mistakes to understand organizational issues better. Individuals should never be held accountable for system failings over which they have no control. Instead, a just culture in nursing promotes an environment for continual learning, making informed choices, and delivering safer care.

Medical errors and preventable incidents occur daily in healthcare organizations. By increasing the number of near misses and incidents reported, healthcare organizations can better understand safety challenges and prevent patient harm. Unfortunately, these harmful incidents often go unreported.