Letters
Incident reporting
Most doctors have negative experiences of reporting incidents
BMJ 2013; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6714 (Published 12 November 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6714
- Kevin Stewart, clinical director1,
- Reema Harrison, research fellow2,
- Rebecca Lawton, professor, psychology of healthcare3
- 1Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit, Royal College of Physicians, London NW1 4LE, UK
- 2School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
- 3University of Leeds and Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford, UK
- kevin.stewart{at}rcplondon.ac.uk
Doctors may not report adverse events or speak up when they witness poor care because of fear of punitive action or lack of confidence that reporting will change anything.1 Detrimental psychological effects associated with their patients experiencing adverse events may also deter reporting.2 Negative previous experiences of incident reporting and investigations compound these effects.3
Berwick described a culture of …
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