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Coercive Conformity: Does Mandated Reporting of Hospital Errors Improve Patient Safety?

Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Other Social Characteristics as Factors in Health and Health Care Disparities

ISBN: 978-1-83982-799-0, eISBN: 978-1-83982-798-3

Publication date: 28 September 2020

Abstract

Purpose – Patient safety and adverse events continue to present significant challenges to the US health care delivery system. Mandated reporting of adverse events can be a mechanism to “coerce” hospitals to identify, evaluate, and ultimately improve the quality and safety of patient care. The objective of this study is to determine if the coercion of mandated reporting impacts hospital patient safety scores.

Methods – We utilize the US News and World Report 2012–2013 Best Hospital Rankings which includes patient safety data from US teaching hospitals. The dependent variable is a composite measure of six indicators of patient safety during and after surgery. The independent variable is state mandated reporting of hospital adverse events. Three control variables are included: Magnet accreditation status, surgical volume, and the percentage of surgical admissions.

Findings – Using ordered logistic regression (n = 670 hospitals) we find a positive, but not significant, relationship between state mandated reporting and better patient safety scores.

Implications – This finding suggests that regulatory policy may not actually prompt performance improvement, and our data point to the need for further study of both formal and informal processes to manage patient safety within the hospital.

Originality – While increased reporting of adverse events has been linked to hospitals providing safer care, no research to date has examined whether or not state-level mandates actually lead to improvements in patient safety.

Keywords

Citation

Koricke, M.W. and Scheid, T.L. (2020), "Coercive Conformity: Does Mandated Reporting of Hospital Errors Improve Patient Safety?", Kronenfeld, J.J. (Ed.) Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Other Social Characteristics as Factors in Health and Health Care Disparities (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 38), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-495920200000038021

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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