Identification and characterization of errors and incidents in a medical intensive care unit

Background:  To assess the frequency, type, consequences, and associations of errors and incidents in a medical intensive care unit (ICU). Methods:  Two‐hundred and sixteen consecutive patients with predominantly cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders admitted between December 2002 and February 2003...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica 2005-08, Vol.49 (7), p.930-939
Main Authors: Graf, J., Von Den Driesch, A., Koch, K.-C., Janssens, U.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Anesthesia
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Error and incident
Female
Hospital Mortality
Humans
intensive care
Intensive Care Units
Male
Medical Errors
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
monitoring
outcome
quality improvement
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Summary:Background:  To assess the frequency, type, consequences, and associations of errors and incidents in a medical intensive care unit (ICU). Methods:  Two‐hundred and sixteen consecutive patients with predominantly cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders admitted between December 2002 and February 2003 were enrolled. Demographic data, SAPS II, and TISS‐28 were obtained for all patients. Prior to patient enrolment all staff members (physicians, nurses, physiotherapists) were repeatedly encouraged to make use of the Incident Report Form (IRF) and detailed descriptions on how, why and when to use the IRF were provided. Results:  During the observation period of 64 days, 50 errors involving 32 patients (15%) were reported. Patients subjected to errors were more severely ill (SAPS II 42 ± 25 vs. 32 ± 18, P 
ISSN:0001-5172
1399-6576
DOI:10.1111/j.1399-6576.2005.00731.x