Article
Clinical Practice Guidelines and Patient Safety – Do Clinical Practice Guidelines play a role in critical incident reporting systems?
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Authors
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A. Sanguino Heinrich
- Agency for Quality in Medicine, Berlin, Germany
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J. Rohe
- Agency for Quality in Medicine, Berlin, Germany
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C. Hahnenkamp
- Agency for Quality in Medicine, Berlin, Germany
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C. Thomeczek
- Agency for Quality in Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| Published: | July 10, 2012 |
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Outline
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Background: Critical incident reporting systems (CIRS) offer an opportunity to health care professionals to anonymously report and discuss incidents, to learn and to identify pitfalls in healthcare. This approach focuses on the role of guidelines in relation to CIRS.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the relevance of guidelines in CIRS reports and the context in which guidelines are mentioned.
Methods: The titles, description fields and analyses of 3312 incident reports of four German open-access web-based systems were searched by the German terms for 'clinical practice guidelines' (CPG), 'algorithm' (ALG) and 'clinical pathway' (CP). We analyzed in which field the search terms were found and if they played a role for the report or the analysis. The identified reports were then categorised, e.g. 'CPG, ALG or CP not followed', 'need for CPG, ALG or CP', 'need for training in CPG, ALG or CP'.
Results: Overall we found 54 reports which exhibited at least one of the three search terms. We identified 29 reports with 'CPG', 21 reports with 'ALG' and 4 reports with 'CP'. CPG, ALG or CP was addressed to in the analyses of 24 reports. E.g. 20 reports were categorized as 'CPG, ALG or CP not followed'. Further results will be presented during the conference.
Discussion: Our analysis indicates guidelines play a role in CIRS. Their main importance seems to be in the analyses of critical incidents. CIRS can be a method to increase use of guidelines. This function of CIRS should be further explored.
