Strength of safety measures introduced by medical practices to prevent a recurrence of patient safety incidents: An observational study (August 2022)

Summary

This German study in the Journal of Patient Safety aimed to analyse the strength of safety measures described in incident reports in outpatient care. 184 medical practices were invited to submit anonymous incident reports to the project team three times in 17 months. The authors coded the incident reports and safety measures, classifying them as as “strong” (likely to be effective and sustainable), “intermediate” (possibly effective and sustainable) or “weak” (less likely to be effective and sustainable).

The study found that the proportion of weak measures was high, which indicates that practices need more support in identifying strong patient safety measures.