[Patient safety in psychiatric hospitalization - What incidents are reported and managed?]

Reporting and management systems monitoring patient safety incidents (PSIs) facilitate the understanding of mechanisms of action and allow work on improvement activities to minimise their occurrence. In our country, little is known about the adverse effects of healthcare during psychiatric hospitalisation (PH). The aim of this study is to determine the occurrence and characteristics of the PSIs, as well as the improvement actions resulting from them, in the PH services being offered at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu (an institution specialized in mental healthcare).

An observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted, covering the period 2013-2016. Analysis was made of the PSIs reported in the following areas of PH: acute and sub-acute (ASA), and medium and long-term stay (MLS). The following variables were identified: number, type and level of harm resulting from the PSIs, professional category of the person declaring the PSI, method of analysis used to investigate the PSI, and improvement actions generated by those PSIs that required either root-cause analysis or audit reports. The chi-squared test was used for statistical purposes when comparing percentages.

A total of 2,940 PSIs were reported. The frequency in ASA was significantly higher (7.1 per 1,000 stays) than in MLS (5.3). Almost all (97.6%) of the incidents were related to falls, aggressive and/or disturbed behaviour, mind-altering drugs, self-harm, medication, dangerous objects, and patients escaping. PSIs recording moderate or severe harm were similar in the 2 different areas (16.5% in ASA vs. 14.2% in MLS). A small percentage (1.02%) of the PSIs resulted in root cause analysis or audit reporting, due to their severity, and from those incidents, 56 improvement actions were generated.

PH demonstrates its own characteristics with regard to the type of PSIs and differs from general hospitalisation. Reporting of PSIs is higher in ASA than in MLS, although the level of harm experienced by the patients is similar. There is a clear understanding of reporting in PH, demonstrated by the steady increase in the numbers declared and also highlights the high level of awareness of the nursing staff.