Adverse events tracked online in US

A web-based reporting system may help clinicians track surgical complications and detect patterns of adverse events, identifying opportunities to improve the quality of care, according to a new US report. The report followed a study in which doctors designed a web-based system to track adverse and near-miss events and also established an automated method to identify patterns of these events. The system was implemented at a large tertiary care hospital in September, 2005. By August, 2007, 15,524 surgical patients were reported including 957 (6.2 per cent) adverse events and 34 (0.2 per cent) anonymous reports. “The automated pattern recognition system…