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Volume 19 (3)
Volume 19, Issue 3, Summer 1999
J Contin Educ Health Prof 1999; 19(3):163-169
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Use of a Residency Program Incident Reporting System as an Educational Tool
Norman A. Desbiens, MD
A b s t r a c t
Residency programs can take advantage of institution-wide incident reporting systems
to develop their own systems to improve program management and enhance education
in communication, conflict resolution, and malpractice prevention. Our internal medicine residency
program developed a secure, computerized log to track all incident reports from reception
to final resolution. Data on source, subject matter, and method of resolution of each incident
report were tallied. From January 1, 1992 through December 31, 1995, 33 incident reports
were received, for an incidence of 0.43 (95% confidence interval: 0.25, 0.61) per resident per
year. About half occurred in the hospital and half in the outpatient setting. Over two-thirds
were generated by the clinic-wide incident reporting system and over one-half involved patient
expression of dissatisfaction with care. After the program director spoke with all involved parties,
nearly two-thirds were resolved by the resident writing a letter to legal services, the
patient, or the hospital quality assurance program. A resident incident reporting system is an
important management tool that can enhance the curriculum of the program, identify resident
or faculty stressors, and correct ineffectual institutional or program policies. The estimate of
about one incident report per two residents per year is probably high based on the threshold
for reporting incidents at our institution. Though our program judges that the benefits of such
a program outweigh the burdens, other studies are needed.
Keywords: Communication; Conflict Resolution; Curriculum; Incident Reports; Monitoring; Postgraduate Medical Education; Program Management; Quality Improvement; Teachable Moment; Teaching Methods
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