Patient Safety Reporting System

Select textsizemediumlargelarger

View of Operating RoomIn 2004, the New Jersey Patient Safety Act (P.L. 2004, c.9) was signed into law. The statute was designed to improve patient safety in hospitals and other health care facilities by establishing a medical error reporting system.

Rather than seeking to place blame, the system promotes comprehensive reporting of adverse patient events, systematic analysis of their causes, and creation of solutions that will improve health care quality and save lives.

This site is designed to help health care facilities develop strong patient safety programs and fulfill the law’s mandatory reporting requirements.

  

The new reporting web based system is now available to General Acute Care Hospitals, Comprehensive Rehabilitation Hospitals, Psychiatric Hospitals, Specialty Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers. All events and RCAs must be submitted through the web based reporting system at: www.nj.gov/health/ps/report/

Patient Safety Reporting System:  2009 Summary Report [pdf 1.8mb] reviews the fifth year of reporting and Patient Safety activities. The report summarizes 2009 reporting in comparison to the previous years.  Along with general acute care hospitals this report also includes data from comprehensive rehabilitation, psychiatric, and special hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and state psychiatric hospitals.

The web based reporting system training presentation is now posted on the Training Materials page.

Event: Patients have sustained severe burns following the application of a hot compress that had been heated in a microwave.

Facility Strategy: Prevention strategies included discontinuing the use of microwaves to prepare hot compresses. Signs were placed near all microwave ovens to remind staff not to use microwave ovens to heat compresses. Education was provided to all clinical staff regarding the proper procedure for preparation of hot compresses. The facility is monitoring the procedure for application of hot compresses with observation.

Previous Prevention Strategies