A new way to report safety events

Documenting patient safety reports in IDInc. is now simpler and more efficient. Recently, Epic added a new feature that allows staff to report patient safety incidents while in the patient medical record rather than navigating to IDinc separately. The goal is to make it easier to report patient safety events, learn from these events and provide a safer environment for our patients.

Linda Allen, director of quality systems in the UF Health Sebastian Ferrero Office of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, said documenting patient safety reports through Epic allows the user to skip entering basic information because the system already knows the identity of the patient, who is reporting the incident and where they are reporting it. Instead, the reporter can focus on the details of the safety event. Anonymous reporting must still be done the traditional way.

“They’re still separate systems. It’s just the access to it (through Epic) is much easier and much more staff-friendly,” Allen said. Sue Keating, director of clinical risk management in the UF Health Sebastian Ferrero Office of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, said the hope is that more incidents will be reported, leading to better patient care. The easier it is for staff to enter safety events, the more measures can be taken to improve the quality and safety of patient care.

Keating said, “As we see our patient safety reports rising, that’s not telling us that there’s more harm occurring, but rather that our safety culture is advancing.”