Abstract
Objectives:
- Identify the importance of incident reporting.
- Discuss the impact of incident reporting on medication errors.
- Critically review the limitations and challenges of incident reporting.
- Develop an idea of the best incident reporting methods.
Methods: A comprehensive critical literature review of international papers was carried out. The PubMed database was the primary source for retrieving documents and studies with various methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, using specific keywords, and determining inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Results: The critical review reveals that incident reporting systems led to exploring risk areas during healthcare procedures and steps. This significantly impacts medication safety, especially medication errors, so many countries have created incident reporting systems related to medication errors. There are multiple limitations, barriers, and challenges to reporting incidents by health care professionals, for example, lack of training, time, and feedback, furthermore, fear of litigation and disciplinary action of reporting. The best approach to incident reporting systems should enhance safety and motivate clinical staff to report without fear of consequences.
Discussion and Conclusion: Incident reporting systems are critical to discovering unsafe practices and procedures of health care organizations; in addition, all efforts should be undertaken by the health services organization to encourage professionals to report incidents. The reporting system should be designed to simplify reporting and ensure the safety of both staff and patients.
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