The incident management and nonconformities is a very important stage within organizations. However, it carries even greater weight in healthcare institutions, as its purpose is to identify, record, analyze, and correct deviations from previously established standards.
In the healthcare field, it is essential to follow a pre-established standard—not only to ensure that services meet the norms and regulations of the sector, but also to guarantee high-quality deliverables aligned with patient safety.
When incidents are not properly identified and handled, they can negatively impact risk management, increase costs, and affect productivity, among other consequences.
Why Manage Incidents?
One of the main advantages of efficiently managing incidents and nonconformities is risk reduction. By mapping and managing nonconformities, failures can be corrected and errors mitigated, increasing patient safety and contributing to improved risk management.
Another benefit driven by effective incident management is continuous improvement. After all, the incidents that are analyzed and addressed contribute to enhancements in the institution’s processes, generating constant learning and improving the services delivered on a daily basis.
By preventing failures and making processes more efficient, organizations create a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone becomes responsible for optimizations and suggestions, as they feel part of the process. As a result, costs are reduced.
With aligned processes, effective risk management, and employees who remain attentive to workflows undergoing ongoing improvements, the quality of the services provided evolves, and trust becomes a distinguishing attribute, enabling differentiation from competitors.
When performed properly, the management of incidents and nonconformities helps establish records and build a historical information base, enabling the identification of trends and data-driven decision-making capable of promoting significant changes in the sector.
In addition, all the aspects mentioned above contribute to maintaining regulatory compliance and meeting legal and normative requirements, such as those established by FDA.
Incident Management and Hospital Accreditation
Hospitals or institutions seeking to obtain hospital accreditation, regardless of the accrediting body, must meet a series of requirements—and the management of nonconformities is one of them.
This is a mandatory aspect of the accreditation process, as it is one of the ways to certify the quality and safety of the services provided. It is considered a key indicator of the organization’s commitment to continuous improvement and accountability for the services delivered.
When evaluating this area, the accrediting body considers:
- The existence of a Patient Safety Committee
- The degree of structure in the incident management process
- The presence of an incident management culture
- The use of quality and risk management tools
- Evidence demonstrating that reported incidents lead to continuous process improvement
In practice, the institution or hospital must demonstrate the existence of a process that guides the management of incidents and nonconformities, including detailed documentation and classification of incidents as well as analysis of their causes.
It must also provide a historical record of the implementation and monitoring of improvement actions resulting from the management of these events, among other required aspects.
Identify and Transform Incidents into Improvement Opportunities with Interact Suite SA
The Occurrence Manager, Interact Suite SA’s solution for managing incidents and nonconformities, is the ideal system for identifying issues and turning them into opportunities for improvement.
With a comprehensive and functional workflow, the solution enables systematic management of all stages involved in documenting and analyzing the organization’s corrective, preventive, and predictive actions.
Among its features, it includes the Ishikawa Diagram, used to facilitate the identification of probable causes of incidents.
Its functionalities allow for:
- Visual management of all nonconformities
- Monitoring of indicators
- Anonymous reporting of nonconformities
- Notifications through corporate email
- Standardized registration, among other features
In addition, it enables the monitoring and execution of actions resulting from recorded incidents and nonconformities, making it ideal for building a history and tracking the progress of each action.
The application is available individually or can be contracted as part of the Quality Management Solution, widely used by hospitals and healthcare institutions to ensure service quality and patient safety.
Visit our website to learn more about Quality Management in Interact Suite SA
