Medical safety reporting system neccessity and analysis of Turkey 2016 data: A health policy report

Article type: Brief Report

Authors: Koca, Ercan^a | Aksoy, Hilal^b; | Tarhan, Dilek^c | Çi̇ftli̇k, Emine Elvan^d | Oktay, Kemal^e | Öztürk, Abdullah^c | Gündüz, Mehmet^c

Affiliations: [a] Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, Project Management Support Unit, Ankara, Turkey | [b] Department of Family Medicine, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey | [c] General Directorate of Health Services, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey | [d] Istanbul Education Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey | [e] Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence: [*]  Corresponding author: Hilal Aksoy. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: BACKGROUND:The National Safety Reporting System, which is developed for Turkey, aims to classify medical errors with a coding methodology that handles errors in subcategories. Error entries done via the system are added to the statistics immediately by advanced live data reporting capabilities of the software. OBJECTIVE:Our aim was to provide information about the Turkey local reporting system to ensure patient safety by detecting medical errors. METHODS:The data used for analyses were obtained from https://www.grs.saglik.gov.tr and the web service used by hospital information systems. The error reporting time, most commonly reported errors, errors by professions and errors by location were examined under the major error categories and percentages that have been used in relevant data. RESULTS:In total, 53,477 errors were submitted to the National Safety Reporting System in 2016. When these entries were split into relevant categories such as drug errors, laboratory errors, surgical errors and patient safety errors, the most common errors were wrong dosage order, hemolyzed sample, not marking the side to be operated on and patient fall (patient/caretaker related), respectively. CONCLUSION:In order to reduce medical errors and provide patient safety, every institution must first of all do its own self-assessment. New user-friendly systems can be developed in order to increase medical error notifications and thus institutions can improve their healthcare quality.

Keywords: Patient safety, medical errors, National Safety Reporting System, Turkey

DOI: 10.3233/JRS-194018

Journal: International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 133-145, 2021