COLLECTING DATA ON POTENTIALLY HARMFUL EVENTS - A METHOD FOR MONITORING INCIDENTS IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Objective. The prediction and subsequent prevention of errors, which a re an integral element of human behaviour, require an understanding of their cause. The incident monitoring technique was developed in the s tudy of aviation errors in the Second World War and has been applied m ore recently in the field of anaesthetics. This pilot study represents one of the first attempts to apply the incident monitoring technique in the general practice environment. Method. A total of 297 GPs across Australia anonymously reported details of unintended events which har med or could have harmed the patient. Reports were contemporaneously r ecorded on prepared forms which allowed a free text description of the incident, and structured responses for contributing and mitigating fa ctors, immediate and long-term outcomes, additional costs etc. Results and discussion. The first 500 reports were analysed using both of qua litative and quantitative methods and a brief overview of results is p resented. The methodological issues arising in the application of this technique to such a large, widely spread profession, in which episode s of care are not necessarily confined to a single consultation, are d iscussed. This study demonstrated that the incident monitoring techniq ue can be successfully applied in general practice and that the result ing information can facilitate the identification of common factors co ntributing to such events and allow the development of preventive inte rventions.