Qualitative content analysis: A framework for the substantive review of hospital incident reports

For decades, incident reports have been utilized as a part of comprehensive healthcare risk management and patient safety programs. As the roles of healthcare risk managers and patient safety professionals become more complex, it is essential that standard tools and strategies used by these professionals, like incident report analysis, be standardized to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Qualitative content analysis provides a structured framework that can be successfully used to describe the categories and themes of incidents, so that, they can be used to develop individual and organizational learning.