Achieving consistency in grading adverse clinical incidents: does Doing Less Harm do the job?

Abstract

The new National Patient Safety Agency (NPS) has set itself (and NHS organisations) an ambitious agenda. The success of the new reporting system will depend not only on concerned staff’s awareness about what constitutes an adverse incident but also on the convergence of their individual judgements of what grading to apply to those incidents. Medical Protection Society (MPS) experience indicates that raising staff awareness alone is a monumental task. Achieving convergence in the grades they assign to such incidents is likely to present even greater difficulties. Draft guidance was published in August 2001, but it does not address the crucial issue of consistency within and across organisations. The system, as envisaged, would also discourage organisations from allocating “red” codes to more serious incidents.

Citation

Cowan, J. (2002), "Achieving consistency in grading adverse clinical incidents: does Doing Less Harm do the job?", British Journal of Clinical Governance, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 63-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/14664100210815459