Learning from patient safety incidents in the emergency department: A systematic review

Background: Patient safety incidents are commonly observed in critical and high demanding care settings, including the emergency department. There is a need to understand what causes patient safety incidents in emergency departments and determine the implications for excellence in practice. Objective: Our aim was to systematically review the international literature on patient safety incidents in emergency departments and determine what can be learned from reported incidents to inform and improve practice. Discussion: Patient safety incidents in emergency departments have a number of recognized contributing factors. These can be used as groundwork for the development of effective tools to systematically identify incident risk. Participation in efforts to diminish risk and improve patient safety through appropriate incident reporting is critical for removing barriers to safe care. Conclusions: This review enhances our awareness of contributing factors to patient safety incidents within emergency departments and encourages researchers from different disciplines to investigate the causes of practice errors and formulate safety improvement strategies.