gms | German Medical Science

Population based research suggests that approximately 40.000 patients suffer from preventable medical treatment errors in Germany each year. With the aim of improving the quality of treatment management of neurosurgical patients an employee questionnaire and an incident reporting system have been established to identify latent risks in the medical treatment process.

Using a process analysis approach an employee questionnaire was designed to estimate the occurrence probability of various medical errors in the Department of Neurosurgery and their presumable negative effects on the four perspectives of the balanced score card (financial results, customer satisfaction, internal service process, learning/innovation and employee satisfaction). In addition an incident reporting system for adverse events and medical errors has been initiated to continuously improve treatment safety.

Based on the analysis of the employee questionnaire, certain latent risks in the medical treatment process were identified and eliminated/ diminished. According to the preliminary experience with the incident reporting system, the designed record sheet became well accepted beyond the employees of our clinic. A local risk management group (two surgeons, two nurses, one medical engineer) started to evaluate and analyse recorded medical errors and adverse events. Data are communicated and discussed with the medical director and the clinic staff on a monthly basis to continuously improve the treatment quality.

A proactive risk management helps to reduce patient harm and dissatisfaction, prevents poor use of staff, time and money, protects from liability and litigation and improves morale by making the organisation more safety conscious.