Effect of Critical Incident Reporting System on the quality of clinical anesthesia

Objective To evaluate the effect of Critical Incident Reporting System on the quality of clinical anesthesia. Methods Anesthesia-related critical incidents happened in the perioperative period were reported in voluntary, anonymous, no punishment and confidential manners.The data was collected, classified and documented by assigned professionals on a regular basis from September 2012 to August 2016.The critical incidents were retrospectively analyzed after the risk was assessed.The 4-year reporting rate was collected.The risk of critical incidents was assessed using severity and probability analysis, and the critical incidents-inducing risk factors were analyzed. Results The 4-year reporting rate of critical incidents was 0.551%.From 1st to 4th year, the reporting rates were 0.729%, 0.598%, 0.819% and 0.368%, respectively, and the incidence of injury incidents was 0.112%, 0.106%, 0.133% and 0.031%, respectively.The reporting rate of critical incidents and incidence and reporting rate of the injury incidents showed a decreasing trend for 1st and 2nd year, significantly increased for 3rd year and decreased for 4th year (P<0.05). The first three critical incident categories were equipment use and respiratory system- and workflow-related incidents.Patient injury during surgery was considered an extremely high risk incident; the factor of the medical staff in the department of anesthesiology is the first critical incidents-inducing risk factor. Conclusion Critical Incident Reporting System can discover and correct the system-related risk and the inducing factors in the department of anesthesiology and is an effective method of improving the service quality of clinical anesthesia. Key words: Anesthesia department, hospital; Risk management; Medical errors