Characterization of Safety Events Involving Technology in Primary and Community Care.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Sociotechnical Systems

Background:

• Health information technology (HIT) adoption aims to enhance patient safety.
• While HIT can reduce adverse events, it is also linked to safety incidents.
• Existing research predominantly focuses on acute care settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe voluntarily reported safety events involving HIT.
• Focus on community and primary care settings within a Canadian healthcare organization.

Main Methods:

• Extracted 2 years of HIT-related safety events (2016-2018) from a voluntary reporting system.
• Categorized events by clinical setting, event type, and harm level.
• Applied the Sittig and Singh sociotechnical system model to analyze event dimensions.

Main Results:

• 104 events reported; 82% resulted in no harm.
• Public health settings had the most reports (43%); home health had the fewest (7%).
• Personnel (46%), Workflow and Communication (36%), and Content (29%) were the most frequent sociotechnical dimensions.

Conclusions:

• Most HIT safety events are multifaceted, involving both technical and social aspects.
• Utilizing safety reporting systems and sociotechnical frameworks aids in identifying and learning from HIT events.
• Proactive analysis of sociotechnical dimensions can improve HIT safety in community and primary care.