Identifying barriers to incident reporting in a quaternary care hospital

AIM: This study aimed to explore the barriers to incident reporting among healthcare professionals in a quaternary care hospital in South India. METHODOLOGY: tests and analysis of variance. RESULTS: A total of 629 responded (35% response rate): 68 doctors (10%), 435 nurses (69%) and 126 allied health professionals (20%). Incident reporting was highest among allied health professionals (65%), followed by nurses (39%) and doctors (27%). However, nurses reported the highest absolute number of incidents (n=170). Types of incidents most frequently reported included medication related (n=92), patient safety (n=69) and patient care (n=42). The most common barriers were personal, particularly fear of punitive action (66% of allied health professionals, 36% of nurses and 15% of doctors), identity tracking concerns (56%, 40% and 38%, respectively) and perceived lack of anonymity. Differences in perceived barriers across groups were statistically significant (p