Design and Validation of the First Electronic Registry System for Reporting Medical Errors in the Primary Health Care System in Iran

Patient safety is one of the priorities in all care systems in the world. Unsafecare can cause harm to patients and increase the mortality and morbidity rate. Establishing anerror reporting system is one of the initial steps toward improvement in the quality of care inprimary health care. The aim of this study was to set and validate the first electronic reportingsystem for primary care in Bandar Abbas, Iran. To design and create an electronic error reporting system, we designed a datacollection form and validated it by the experts; then, the tool was designed and revalidated tocapture the errors and design automatic report forms. Finally, the modifications were madein the software. The software had been implemented in selected comprehensive health centersin Bandar Abbas for 8 months. The registry is designed to include two main sections, including general informationon medical errors (demographic information, type of event, error severity, error occurrencelocation, pre-error training, preventable error, causes of error, error identification source,and error detection time) and classification of medical errors (care errors, vaccination errors,environmental and occupational health errors, laboratory errors, and imaging errors). Managing medical errors successfully needs the establishment of a voluntaryreporting system and addressing barriers to reporting errors. This innovative error registrysystem of primary care was created to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about thefrequency, types, and causes of medical errors in primary health care.