A Tool for the Concise Analysis of Patient Safety Incidents.

BACKGROUND: Patient safety incidents, sometimes referred to as adverse events, incidents, or patient safety events, are too common an occurrence in health care. Most methods for incident analysis are time and labor intensive. Given the significant resource requirements of a root cause analysis, for example, there is a need for a more targeted and efficient method of analyzing a larger number of incidents. Although several concise incident analysis tools are in existence, there are no published studies regarding their usability or effectiveness. METHODS: Building on previous efforts, a Concise Incident Analysis (CIA) methodology and tool were developed to facilitate analysis of no- or low-harm incidents. Staff from 11 hospitals in five countries-Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, and the United States-pilot tested the tool in two phases. The tool was evaluated and refined after each phase on the basis of user perceptions of usability and effectiveness. RESULTS: From September 2013 through January 2014, 52 patient safety incidents were analyzed. A broad variety of incident types were investigated, the most frequent being patient falls (25%). Incidents came from a variety of hospital work areas, the most frequent being from the medical ward (37%). Most incidents investigated resulted in temporary harm or no harm (94%). All or most sites found the tool "understandable" (100%), "easy to use" (89%), and "effective" (89%). Some 95% of participants planned to continue to use all or some parts of the tool after the pilot. Qualitative feedback suggested that the tool allowed analysis of incidents that were not currently being analyzed because of insufficient resources. The tool was described as simple to use, easy to document, and aligned with the flow of the incident analysis. CONCLUSION: A concise tool for the investigation of patient safety incidents with low or no harm was well accepted across a select group of hospitals from five countries.

Pediatric Emergency Department Return: A Literature Review of Risk Factors and Interventions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Children discharged from emergency departments (EDs) are often at risk for ED return. The objective was to identify risk factors and interventions to mitigate or prevent ED return among this patient population. METHODS: Structured literature review of PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov was conducted to identify relevant studies. Inclusion criteria were studies evaluating ED returns by identifying risk factors and interventions in the pediatric population. Emergency department return was defined as returning to the ED within 1 year after initial visit. Abstract and full text articles were reviewed, and data were abstracted by 2 independent authors. RESULTS: A total of 963 articles were screened and yielded 42 potential relevant articles involving pediatric population. After full text review, a total of 12 articles were included in the final analysis (6 on risk factors and 6 on interventions). Risk factors for pediatric ED return included behavioral/psychiatric problems, younger age, acuity of illness, medical history of asthma, and social factors. Interventions included computer-generated instructions, postdischarge telephone coaching, ED-made appointments, case management, and home environment intervention. Emergency department-made appointments and postdischarge telephone coaching plus monetary incentive improved outpatient follow-up rate but not ED return. Home environment assessment coupled with case management reduced ED returns specifically among asthma patients. CONCLUSIONS: Several patient and visit characteristics can help predict children at risk for ED return. Although some interventions are successful at improving postdischarge follow-up, most did not reduce ED returns.