A hospital good catch program can be an effective means to improve patient safety. Good catches occur up to 100 times more frequently than Serious Events, but often go underreported. Recognizing and rewarding staff can encourage good catch submissions and provide more opportunities to improve patient safety. Queried data in the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System was aggregated to calculate a ratio of good catches to Serious Events. Statewide data has shown an increase in this ratio from 5.6:1 in 2005 to 10.3:1 in 2016. The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority created a Good Catch Comparison report for hospitals to compare their own ratio with peer facilities. A literature review and interviews conducted with risk managers and patient safety officers at five Pennsylvania hospitals allowed the authors to recognize key components to useful good catch reporting. Overall, the Authority concluded that good catch programs can help hospitals more effectively analyze reported data and implement risk reduction strategies. Additionally, using the Good Catch Comparison report available through the Authority's Patient Safety Liaisons can identify facility-specific event types or care areas that are reporting above or below aggregate peer rates, potentially highlighting successful practices or targets for improvement efforts.
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