Disclosures: Daniel T. Probst, MD: Nothing to disclose

Objective: Residents report a disproportionately small number of patient safety events with two contributing factors being lack of reporting education and unfamiliarity with the safety event reporting system. Through a multifaceted educational intervention, this study sought to increase the number of patient safety events reported by PM&R residents.

Design: Prospective quasi-experimental study.

Setting: University-based PM&R residency program and affiliated joint-venture hospital-based inpatient rehabilitation facility.

Participants: 14 PM&R residents

Interventions: The university patient safety event reporting system was launched at t=0 months. Baseline data on resident event reporting was collected from t=0 months to t=3 months. Data collection continued during the intervention phase from t=3 months to t=9 months. The multifaceted educational intervention consisted of a patient safety event Trigger List, educational lectures, and step-by-step “How to Report a Patient Safety Event” posters. The Trigger List included specific patient safety events deemed important by residents. All residents attended educational lectures on the importance and mechanics of reporting patient safety events at t=3 months. The lectures were repeated at t=4.5 months. The posters were placed in all resident workrooms at t=3 months.

Main Outcome Measures: The number of patient safety events reported by resident physicians per month was the primary outcome. The secondary outcome was the number of residents reporting patient safety events per month. Statistical analysis was performed with independent samples t-tests.

Results: The educational intervention led to significant increases in the number of patient safety events reported per month (pre-intervention: 3.7; post-intervention: 18.2; P<.05) and the number of residents reporting events per month (pre-intervention: 1.0; post-intervention: 4.3; P<.01).

Conclusions: A multifaceted educational intervention led to significant increases in both the number of reported patient safety events and the number of PM&R resident physicians reporting these events. Patient safety event data feedback allowed for proposed solutions to commonly identified patient safety events.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/educational-intervention-improves-patient-safety-event-reporting-among-pmr-residents/