Promotion of patient safety and incident reporting

This article presents the methodology for incident reporting. Incident reporting constitutes an important strategy at all levels of the health system, as well as for scientific medical societies, and represents the basis for creating the requisite conditions for effective prevention and management of adverse events, i.e. incidents, within the health system. To create a safe environment one must begin with the patient and with those clinical activities that are part and parcel of patient care, and re-design medical departments accordingly, considering all the components that can lead directly or indirectly to malfunctioning or error and that could be a potential cause of harm to the patient. To achieve patient safety, all health professionals must play an active rote in identifying and reporting latent problems and errors that have been missed, proposing and adopting solutions for their prevention, and collaborating with the team when adverse events do occur for an effective management of the situation and its consequences. Above all, health professionals at all levels must assume a pro-active attitude and cooperate to develop a safe system in which patients and personnel are real partners.