Improve Safety with Healthcare Incident Reporting Software

The World Health Organization reports that every year, about 1 in 10 patients is harmed in a healthcare setting. Many of those are preventable using healthcare incident reporting software to track potentially harmful events.

Incident reporting software is not just a tool but a powerful ally in understanding errors, oversights, and other events to improve future risk management strategies. Designed with safety in mind, the software helps healthcare organizations prioritize safety for their employees, vendors, and, most importantly, patients receiving care.

In this blog, I’ll share how healthcare incident reporting software promotes safety and helps organizations better track, report, analyze, and use event data to improve processes and provide detailed, accurate data during audits and inspections.

Healthcare Incident Reporting Software Streamlines Processes

Before the digital age, incident reporting was a long, laborious process. Most health professionals would notify their manager and complete extensive paperwork by hand if any incident occurred. This manual process discouraged reporting and made it challenging for compliance managers to track and analyze data for possible trends.  

Many health organizations have transitioned to digital solutions for incident reporting, inspiring a culture of compliance. Healthcare incident reporting software offers many features to expedite and simplify the incident reporting process:

• Online Access: This helps with accuracy since specific event details are still top of mind for employees who discovered or were involved in an incident.
• Preprogrammed Questions: Once a user begins a report and selects the type of incident, the software generates a list of questions based on the type of event. Automatically generated questions prompt employees to include information that may not be captured with paper forms.
• Instant Notifications: New-era incident reporting software instantly notifies appropriate people in the chain of command about the incident as soon as the reporter clicks submit.
• Report Anonymously: The online format allows employees to complete incident reports from anywhere and submit them anonymously, encouraging reporting, quick escalation, and resolution.
• Accurate Severity Levels: Identify important trends by assigning accurate and meaningful classifications to every incident. 

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Organizational Benefits of Incident Reporting Software

Healthcare incident reporting software is more than automated reports and escalations. It affects a healthcare organization’s compliance culture, employee morale, and data analysis in ways you may not know. Here are a few of the more prominent benefits:

Empowered Employees

Incident reporting software allows clinical and non-clinical staff to quickly and anonymously report incidents that need a closer look. More importantly, established protocols show employees that leadership is serious about compliance, which builds trust and confidence.

Improved Resolution

The software makes it easy to track data and generate reports that reveal gaps in training, staffing, or operational procedures. That information is invaluable in identifying root causes and making changes to support your compliance culture.

Better Information Security

Not all healthcare incidents involve patients or staff. Data breaches are a growing problem for many organizations. Healthcare incident reporting software, coupled with a comprehensive response plan, empowers individuals to act quickly and protect patient data before an information leak grows.

More Efficient Training

Using incident response data, healthcare organization leaders can determine where additional safety training is needed and identify employees who may not follow compliance protocols at acceptable levels. Compliance managers are empowered to provide microlearning for non-compliant staff and create new training to address safety gaps. 

Use Software to Boost Healthcare Incident Reporting

Many large healthcare organizations use some type of compliance and risk management tool. Digital incident reporting software can help create the proactive reporting culture you want, eliminate delays, identify trends, and resolve issues more quickly.

Discover how MedTrainer can enhance your compliance programs with healthcare incident reporting solutions for any size organization. Contact us to learn more.