Bergström, Annika
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Anicura Albano Small Animal Hospital
Abstract
Background Veterinary healthcare can be a complex process and may lead to unwanted, potentially harmful patient safety incidents as a consequence, negatively impacting both the practice team and client satisfaction. The aim of this study was to identify how such incidents impact cats and dogs by analysing reports gathered in a large-scale voluntary incident reporting system. Methods Descriptive statistical analysis was used to study a total of 2155 incident reports, submitted by 130 practices on mainland Europe. Results Incidents caused harm in more than 40% of reports. Medication-related incidents were the most frequent type of incident recorded (40%). Treatment-related incidents were the most common type of incident causing patient harm (55%). Anaesthesia-related incidents were the most severe type of incident, resulting in patient death in 18% of these reports. Most incidents were reported from hospital wards, and a significantly higher proportion of cats were harmed by incidents compared to dogs. Conclusion This study demonstrates that patients are regularly harmed by incidents, with medication-related incidents being most common. In depth understanding of incident data can help develop interventions to reduce the risk of incident recurrence.
Published in
Veterinary Record
2022, volume: 191, number: 2, article number: e1629
Publisher: WILEY
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Clinical Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.1629
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116828