Table 7 Recommendations for European Chiropractic Incident Reporting and Learning Systems, developed by the commission (2010)
Criteria for success | Requirements for success |
|---|---|
Clear purpose | Strategy to communicate the purpose of learning to improve patient safety in practice |
Clear strategy | Specific instructions for reporters (e.g., chiropractors and staff) on incidents to be reported |
Anonymity | Safe IT-systems and procedures to guarantee anonymity/confidentiality for patients, practitioners and institutions |
Risk free | Administrators and experts involved in managing the system without authority for punishment and retaliation |
Feedback to the reporting individual | Experts must analyse the incidents and give timely feedback. Focus should be on improving the clinical setting and/or avoiding similar incidents in the future |
Feedback to organizations | If serious hazards are identified, information - after being made anonymous - should be distributed to organisations and/or the individual through pre-determined channels without delay |
Accumulation of knowledge | Received data should be collated in a structured fashion to allow meaningful analyses |
Formulation of guidelines | An expert panel should be appointed to transform the aggregated analyses into clinically meaningful guidelines, targeting systems and operational procedures as well as individual performance |
Implementation | A comprehensive strategy for national implementation must be in place for the individual countries, including (but not limited to) presentation at national meetings, workshops and making available written information for clinicians |