Overcoming Human Barriers to Safety Event Reporting in Radiology

Abstract

In high-reliability industries that are dedicated to ensuring safety, safety event reporting is the cornerstone of improvement. However, human factors can interfere with consistent reporting. Common human factors that are barriers to safety event reporting include liability concerns; time constraints; physician autonomy; selfregulation; collegiality; the lack of listening, language training, and/ or feedback regarding reported events; unclear responsibilities within safety teams; and a high reporting threshold. Other barriers include fears of challenging authority, being disrespected, retribution, and the creation of a difficult work environment. These factors are reviewed in the health care setting, and the countermeasures that need to be introduced at the frontline employee, leadership employee (physicians and managers), and departmental and organizational levels to create a culture of safety in which all employees feel comfortable raising safety concerns are discussed. ©

Patient safety incidents in radiology: frequency and distribution of incident types

“…Previous studies on patient safety incidents in radiology only reported their findings on a meta-level (13,14) or provided only a few selected case examples to illustrate the types of errors made (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Lack of, incomplete, or selected reporting of relevant individual patient safety incidents in scientific publications may be due to several factors, including liability concerns, compensation claims, and reputational damage (27). The comprehensive reporting of all harmful and/or serious patient safety incidents in the present study can be regarded as a quality step forward towards a culture of openness that will hopefully benefit patient safety in radiology.…”

Interventions to improve resident reporting of patient safety events: a quality improvement initiative

“…Previous studies looking at causes of underreporting of PSE by resident physicians found systemic barriers like lack of a reporting system, cumbersome reporting process, lack of anonymous reporting, and 'human barriers' such as limited amounts of time, fear of retribution and a personal knowledge gap regarding what qualifies as a reportable event as a common theme [9]. Our previous study indicated that a knowledge gap extending to both recognizing PSE and understanding the need to report them were the most important barriers to reporting.…”

Aprendizaje radiológico basado en problema clínico específico: parte 2, ¿cómo se elabora un informe radiológico?

“…¿Qué factores deben tenerse en cuenta para interpretar una imagen radiológica en forma correcta? [42][43][44][45][46] La forma de interpretar una imagen radiológica es siempre personal y por tanto definitoria del médico (Fig. 1).…”