Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026
07:51
Evaluation of Capnography Sampling Line Compatibility and Accuracy when Used with a Portable Capnography Monitor
Published on: September 29, 2020
Barriers to adverse event and error reporting in anesthesia.
Gaylene C Heard1, Penelope M Sanderson, Rowan D Thomas
1Department of Anaesthesia, St. Vincent's Hospital, PO Box 2900, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. gaylene.heard@svhm.org.au
Anesthesia and Analgesia
|August 9, 2011
Summary
Anesthesiologists perceive blame from colleagues as a key barrier to reporting errors. Fear of litigation and disciplinary action also hinder reporting of adverse events like anaphylaxis, but improved feedback and legal protections could facilitate reporting.
Area of Science:
- Patient Safety
- Anesthesiology
- Medical Error Reporting
Background:
- Limited research exists on factors influencing anesthesiologists' reporting of adverse events and errors.
- Patient safety is a critical area where anesthesiologists play a leading role.
- Understanding reporting barriers is crucial for improving patient safety protocols.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore attitudinal/emotional factors influencing the reporting of errors by anesthesiologists.
- To compare perceived barriers to reporting anaphylaxis caused by error versus not caused by error.
- To identify strategies that anesthesiologists believe would facilitate reporting adverse events.
Main Methods:
- An anonymous mailed survey was distributed to 629 consultant anesthesiologists and 263 residents in Victoria, Australia.
- Participants were randomized into 'Error' or 'No Error' groups for a specific anaphylaxis scenario.
- Data from 433 usable surveys were analyzed using nonparametric statistical tests.
Main Results:
- Only concern about blame from colleagues was agreed upon as an attitudinal barrier to reporting unspecified errors.
- Reporting barriers related to litigation, trouble, discipline, blame, colleagues, and meetings were perceived more strongly when anaphylaxis was error-caused.
- Facilitative strategies included generalized deidentified feedback, role models, and legislated protection from legal discovery.
Conclusions:
- Anesthesiologists' attitudinal barriers to reporting errors are minimal, except for fear of blame.
- The presence of error significantly influences perceived barriers to reporting specific adverse events like anaphylaxis.
- Anesthesiologists favor strategies such as feedback, role modeling, and legal protections to enhance reporting.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Types of Reports II: Incident or Occurrence Report
An Incident or Occurrence Report in a healthcare setting is a crucial document used to record any unexpected occurrence that may or may not have affected a patient, employee, or visitor. Such reports are critical to improving patient safety and include all details leading up to and including the event.
Purposes:
In the healthcare industry, reports play a crucial role in documenting incidents within an agency. The primary objective of these reports is to ensure patient safety, uphold the...
Purposes:
In the healthcare industry, reports play a crucial role in documenting incidents within an agency. The primary objective of these reports is to ensure patient safety, uphold the...
01:21Barriers to Effective Communication II
The barriers to effective communication also include cultural barriers, semantic barriers, gender barriers, and time constraints.
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
01:26Types of Reports III: Telephone and Verbal Reports
Telephone and Verbal Reports in healthcare settings are two communication methods for conveying therapeutic instructions from healthcare providers to nurses or other healthcare staff.
Here's an overview of each type:
Telephone Orders
Here's an overview of each type:
Telephone Orders
01:18Guidelines and Strategies for Safe Computer Charting
The guidelines and strategies provided by the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) offer essential principles for ensuring safe and secure computer charting systems in healthcare settings. Let's break down each recommendation:
Maintain Confidentiality and Security:
Maintain Confidentiality and Security:
01:29SBAR I: Understanding the Concept
Effective communication among healthcare professionals during hand-off reporting is essential to delivering safe and continuous patient care. Common professional interactions include reports to healthcare team members, hand-off, and transfer reports. Nurses routinely report information to other healthcare team members and also urgently contact healthcare providers to report changes in patient status.
Standardized methods of communication have been developed to ensure that information is...
Standardized methods of communication have been developed to ensure that information is...
01:24Data Reporting and Recording
Reporting and recording are crucial in data documentation. The timely, thorough, and accurate documentation of facts is essential when recording patient data. Failure to record findings during an assessment or interpretation of a problem will result in loss of information and make the patient document unreliable. The reader is left with general impressions if the information is not specific. A recording is documenting data of the individual's health information in a traceable, secure, and...