Abstract:
Development and Evaluation of Components of the German Nationwide Incident Reporting System PaSIS (Patient-Safety-Information-System)
In the field of patient safety, an element that has been growing in importance is the consideration of critical events that occur in a clinical setting. In High Reliability Organizations, such as Air Traffic Control Centers or commercial nuclear power plants, critical events are known as markers for safety-threatening accidents. The acquisition of critical events, therefore, has significant importance for systematic patient safety improvement. The Center for Patient Safety and Simulation at the University Hospital of Tuebingen runs the nationwide incident reporting system PaSIS (Patient-Safety-Information-System) for Germany. This thesis explores the development and evaluation of this system. In detail, the following were examined:
- Development and evaluation of the PaSIS reporting form
- Definition of an anonymization checklist
- Presentation of the PaSIS analysis method
- Categorization of the initial incident reports
Numerous problems are known to the already existing Incident Reporting systems. These problems, reflected in this analysis, were highlighted when compared to the currently used PaSIS reporting form. With the participation of a large community hospital in the PaSIS, the use of the current reporting form by nurses and doctors was evaluated. The results of this utilization analysis confirm the practicality and efficacy of the PaSIS reporting form.
Between the writing of a critical report and the following analysis, there is the fundamentally important anonymization and de-identification of the original incident reports. Therefore, a checklist for these aspects of incident reporting was developed during this analysis. Furthermore, the existing method of incident analysis was compared to our analysis method developed by TuePASS (Tuebingen Center for Patient Safety and Simulation), especially when applied to the fields of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. In the final part of this analysis, 213 incident reports were categorized for the purpose of organizing certain incident types into a library of critical events. Parts of this work including the reporting form, the anonymization checklist, and analysis-method are now used routinely and have proven to be successful in the national system.
The utilization of novel and effective incident reporting systems is clinically practical and important for the improvement of patient safety. This analysis, studying the development and evaluation process of the Incident Reporting System PaSIS is an important step to improve patient safety in the field of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine.