Patient Safety Focus
Staff Submitted Reports Bring About Improvement
Safety Tip of the Month
Approximately 2,800 safety reports have been submitted by a variety of staff since BWH initiated its new web-based RL Solutions Safety Reporting last May. From May until the end of last year, nearly 1,200 different staff entered reports that have led to system improvements to enhance patient safety at BWH.
Safety reports filed through this system are reviewed by nurse managers, process owners, and the Risk Management and Patient Safety teams in an effort to identify possible systems improvements that could benefit patients. Last summer after the web-based reporting system launched, the Patient Safety Team surveyed users to gauge satisfaction with the system and solicit improvement ideas. Feedback indicated that reporters find RL easier to use than the previous BICS reporting system, but that certain reports were time consuming to complete. These suggestions have been taken into consideration, and there will be an upgraded version of RL available this month, featuring more incident categories, a special section dedicated to adverse drug reactions, and a streamlined medication section, among other improvements.
The RL Solutions Safety Reporting System is available in the Start Menu under Partners Applications. For more information, contact Erin Graydon-Baker in Patient Safety or Janet Barnes in Risk Management.
Note that any adverse patient event resulting in serious harm should be reported directly to Risk Management.