Near miss events are much more common than events where harm actually reaches a patient, as much as 7-100 times more frequent. However, reporting systems for such events are much less common. At Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, 3/4 of the safety event reports the hospital captures in RL6 are near misses. This high volume of near misses is part of an overall strategy to improve patient safety including Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital's work on just culture, and a non-punitive response to errors.
"As robust as our reporting has become, we know we're probably still getting the tip of the iceberg. There are times staff are so overwhelmed or taxed that they're not able to take extra time to report. Our healthy near miss volume really tells us that we've engaged people in an important way."
Christi Barney RN, MSN
Director of Patient Safety, Quality, Infection Control and Accreditation
Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital
