Abstract

Reporting of clinically significant events represents an important mechanism for improving quality of care and patient safety. Time pressure and cumbersome reporting tools inhibit physician participation in events reporting. To improve the process, our residency program developed an easy-to-use mobile events reporting platform attached to our existing handoff system. House staff and attendings were then surveyed for their opinions on the new module. As a result of the introduction of mobile events reporting, we saw a 2.5-fold increase in reports, from twelve per intern per month to thirty-one per intern per month. A majority of interns felt strongly or somewhat that this mechanism ensured that next providers (63%) and attendings (88%) would be informed of key clinical events which occurred overnight. 68% of residents felt the system was important for identifying systems problems requiring attention, and 63% felt it improved quality of care and patient safety. All of the attendings surveyed agreed that the tool provided them with key information, and improved safety and quality.