More trusts report patient safety incidents

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has revealed that more trusts are now reporting patient safety incidents, while the number of incidents resulting in severe harm or death has fallen.

The report shows that the number of trusts that reported an incident to the NPSA from 1 October 2009 – 31 March 2010 increased to 99.7%, compared to 99% during the previous reporting period (April – September 2009).

From October 2009 – March 2010, a total of 569,165 patient safety incidents were reported, which was an increase of 4% (22,577 incidents) from the volume of incidents from the previous reporting period. During this time, the volume of reported patient safety incidents that resulted in severe harm or death fell from 3,572 to 3,509.

The report also indicates that more trusts now understand the importance of reporting incidents that result in no or low harm to the patient. A total of 494,540 incidents were reported from 1 October 2009 – 31 March 2010, compared to 473,162 from April – September 2009.

According to the results, the most commonly reported incidents related to patient accidents (30%); medication errors (11%); and errors relating to the chosen treatment or procedure (10%).