IT-based systems approach to engage patients in medical error reporting: In concurrence with staff

Various consumer surveys show that a large proportion of US adults have had experience of injury caused by medical treatment and yet a very small proportion actually report medical errors. Although reporting efforts to date have almost exclusively focused on staff as the source of reports, it is now being recognized that patients can potentially play a significant and vital role in improving their own safety. At the same time there is an international move towards exploiting the powers of electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of health care. The authors have therefore proposed a computer touch-screen patient-reporting system that has great potential for patients to (a) help prevent adverse events in the first place, (b) detect errors, (c) ameliorate their effects, and (d) empower themselves to propose interventions for safety improvement. This system should contribute to enriching meaningful use of HIT in all healthcare settings through concurrent input from patients.