Patient Safety Concerns
Patient safety is a priority for the AAP. One strategy to improve patient safety is to track events that directly cause harm or have the potential to cause harm. Reporting of these events facilitates examination of the factors, which may have contributed to an incident or near miss and assists the health care agency and educational institution to prevent future occurrences through risk identification and management. All adverse events, critical incidents, and near misses are considered to be learning opportunities, and are valuable opportunities to improve patient safety outcomes through feedback. They are not part of the evaluation process.
Definitions
Adverse Event – any adverse outcome for a patient, including an injury or complication directly associated with the care or services provided to a patient (The Canadian Patient Safety Dictionary, 2003).
Critical Incident – an incident resulting in serious harm (loss of life, limb, or vital organ); there is a need for immediate investigation and response (The Canadian Patient Safety Dictionary, 2003).
Near Miss – an event that could have adverse consequences, but did not (Institute of Medicine, 2004).