Anonymous reporting of medical errors from The Egyptian Neonatal Safety Training Network

Background: ENSTN is the first database to collect incidents and medical errors in NICU in Egypt. To ensure confidential and anonymous reporting system, identify the nature of medical errors and grade of harm as well as the risk factors. To promote patient safety culture and aid to decrease mortality and morbidity due to medical errors in NICU. Methods: Data reported by one University hospital and 12 non-University hospitals were collected through internet-based system on our webpage. Incident reporting icon in English and Arabic languages with standard structured data entry format was developed during the ENSTN project life time (www.egyneosafety.net). The system provides confidential and anonymous reporting. The number and types of reported events and factors that contributed to the events were verified and validated. Results: In total, 2724 incidents were verified. The majority of incidents were from the English versions 2699 while Arabic version 25 incidents. English first version 866 incidents, second 155 and third final versions 1678 incidents. The most frequent events categories were equipment/devices in 29.94%, and treatment/medication errors in 29.68%. Incident classification showed that 43.20% of incidents were adverse events, 5.928% were sentinel, 50.166% near miss and 0. 222% intentionally unsafe act, while 0.481% of incidents were not determined by reporters. The most frequent contributory factors were related to medication errors (28.34%), education/training (28.26%), and communication problems (27.82%). Serious patient harm was reported in 2.945%, death in 4.528% and minor harm in 25.259% of reported incidents. Conclusions: The ENSTN incidents reporting system successfully demonstrated the most common types and causes of medical errors in NICUs and underlying contributing factors. These findings suggest need multidisciplinary collaborative training. The ENSTN educational forum may play a role in reducing medical errors. Copyright (C) 2019, Taiwan Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.