Health care quality management by means of an incident report system and an electronic patient record system

Background: Quality management in health care services has not been as successful as in other industries. Objective: To assess the potential contribution of an on-line incident reporting system (OIRS) and of an electronic patient record (EPR) system to quality management in hospitals. Methods: The two approaches are being implemented in Osaka University Hospital. Results: Analysis of the early use of the on-line reporting system indicates that this qualitative approach has been effective to avoid adverse medical events. The quantitative methodology with the EPR is still in the phase of developing. Conclusion: Direct data entry by medical staff and an EPR based on dynamic templates and a dynamic problem oriented approach could be useful for building clinical data repositories that can support clinical quality management. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.