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Author ORCID Identifier

Atsushi Tanikawa, MD, PhD, FACS ([email protected]) ORCID: 0000-0001-8814-3871

Abstract

Background Incident reports are essential for identifying patient safety events in hospitals, yet physicians—especially resident physicians—submit relatively few reports. Understanding residents’ awareness and experiences related to patient safety is important for promoting reporting and improving organizational safety.

Methods We conducted a questionnaire-based survey between December 20 and 29, 2020, among resident physicians at a single teaching hospital. The survey evaluated satisfaction with residency training, exposure to patient safety education, understanding of incident reporting, and experiences with submitting incident reports.

Results Of the 16 eligible residents, 15 participated in the survey (response rate: 93.8%), including 10 postgraduate year (PGY)-1 residents and 5 PGY-2 residents. Overall training satisfaction was high, and all residents had received patient safety education during medical school and residency. Nine residents (60.0%) had never submitted an incident report; six of these residents (66.7%) newly recognized that they had experienced a reportable incident but had not reported it. The remaining six residents (40.0%) had reporting experience. Among these residents, the perceived burden of reporting was moderate, and the complexity of the reporting format was identified as a barrier.

Conclusion Despite prior exposure to patient safety education, incident reporting by residents remained limited. Under-recognition of reportable events and the complexity of the reporting process may have contributed to the low reporting rate. Improved education regarding what constitutes a reportable incident and how to submit reports may help promote incident reporting among residents.

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