Improving Pediatric Resident Safety Event Reporting Using Quality Improvement Methods.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient Safety
• Medical Education

Background:

• Safety event reporting systems are crucial for identifying system-level improvements in patient safety.
• Resident physicians, as frontline providers, underreport safety events despite frequent occurrences.
• Current reporting rates by pediatric residents are below one submission per 14-day period.

Purpose of the Study:

• To increase pediatric resident safety event submissions from less than one to four submissions per 14-day period within 12 months.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement process in enhancing resident safety event reporting.

Main Methods:

• An iterative quality improvement process was implemented with 39 pediatric residents.
• Interventions focused on a user-friendly submission process, resident buy-in, nonpunitive safety culture, and data transparency.
• Statistical process control was used to analyze the primary outcome (event submissions); balancing measures included feedback time and submission quality.

Main Results:

• Mean pediatric resident event submissions increased from 0.9 to 5.7 per 14 days.
• Successful interventions included a dedicated reporting space, monthly updates, and an interresident competition.
• No increase in duplicate or non-event submissions was observed; feedback time showed variability.

Conclusions:

• The quality improvement process significantly increased pediatric resident safety event submissions.
• The interventions enhanced reporting without compromising the quality of submitted data.
• The study demonstrates a successful strategy for improving safety event reporting among resident physicians.