Systematic review of types of safety incidents and the processes and systems used for safety incident reporting in care homes

Dawson, Pamela (2024) Systematic review of types of safety incidents and the processes and systems used for safety incident reporting in care homes. Journal of Advanced Nursing. ISSN 1365-2648 (In Press)

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Abstract

Aims To identify the safety incident reporting systems and processes used within care homes to capture staff reports of safety incidents, and the types and characteristics of safety incidents captured by safety incident reporting systems. Design Systematic review following PRISMA reporting guidelines. Methods Databases were searched January 2023 for studies published after year 2000, written in English, focus on care homes, and incident reporting systems. Data were extracted using a bespoke data extraction tool and quality assessed. Data were analysed descriptively and using narrative synthesis, with types and characteristics of incidents analysed using the International Classification for Patient Safety. Data sources Databases were CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, HMIC, ASSISA, Nursing & Allied Health Database, MedNar and OpenGrey. Results We identified 8,150 papers with 106 studies eligible for inclusion, all conducted in high-income countries. Numerous incident reporting processes and systems were identified. Using modalities, typical incident reporting systems captured all types of incidents via electronic computerised reporting, with reports made by nursing staff and captured information about patient demographics, the incident, and post-incident actions, whilst some reporting systems included medication- and falls-specific information. Reports were most often used to summarise data and identify trends. Incidents categories most often were patient behaviour, clinical process / procedure, documentation, medication / intravenous fluids, and falls. Various contributing and mitigating factors and actions to reduce risk were identified. The most reported action to reduce risk was to improve safety culture. Individual outcomes were often reported, but social / economic impact of incidents and organisational outcomes were rarely reported. Conclusions This review has demonstrated a complex picture of incident reporting in care homes with evidence limited to high-income countries, highlighting a significant knowledge gap. The findings emphasise the central role of nursing staff in reporting safety incidents and the lack of standardised reporting systems and processes. Implications for the profession and/or patient care The findings from this study can inform the development or adaptation of safety incident reporting systems in care home settings, which is of relevance for nurses, care home managers, commissioners and regulators. This can help to improve patient care by identifying common safety issues across various types of care home and inform learning responses, which require further research. Impact This study addresses a gap in the literature on the systems and processes used to report safety incidents in care homes across many countries, and provides a comprehensive overview of safety issues identified via incident reporting. Reporting method PRISMA Patient or public contribution A member of the research team is a patient and public representative, involved from study conception. What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community? •Provides the first global review of literature on safety incident reporting in care homes, providing recommendations for research including the need for research on safety incident reporting in low- and middle-income countries. •Identifies and reports on key safety issues in care homes that are currently identified via safety incident reporting, including patient behaviour, clinical processes and procedures, documentation, medication and intravenous fluids, and falls. The paper also identifies that social and economic outcomes are rarely captured in research which utilises safety incident reporting data. •Highlights that nurses have a significant role to play in care home safety incident reporting, in keeping with their overall focus on safety work and safety leadership within care home settings.

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	Ms Raisa Burton
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2024 10:25
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2024 10:43
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17841

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