Table 1 Responses by component of the incident learning scale.
| Text of the question | % (n/N) positive | % (n/N) response |
|---|---|---|
| Identification and response | ||
| (1) I would be able to identify an incident if I saw one | 89.5 (111/124) | 99.2 (124/125) |
| (2) My organisation ignores incidents as long as no‐one gets hurt* | 85.3 (87/102) | 81.6 (102/125) |
| (3) My organisation is strongly committed to the prevention of adverse events | 79.8 (87/109) | 87.2 (109/125) |
| (4) I would know how to respond appropriately if I saw an incident occur | 74.6 (91/122) | 97.6 (122/125) |
| (5) My organisation treats incidents as learning opportunities | 60.4 (64/106) | 84.8 (106/125) |
| Reporting | ||
| (6) I would feel quite comfortable reporting an incident in which I made an error or omission | 80.8 (101/125) | 100.0 (125/125) |
| (7) I am familiar with the procedures for reporting an incident | 79.7 (98/123) | 98.4 (123/125) |
| (8) In my organisation people tend to cover up mistakes* | 69.5 (73/105) | 84.0 (105/125) |
| (9) In my organisation there is no blame or stigma attached to reporting an incident | 64.5 (71/110) | 88.0 (110/125) |
| (10) My organisation allocates sufficient priority to incident reporting | 55.3 (57/103) | 82.4 (103/125) |
| Investigation | ||
| (11) My organisation accepts that people make mistakes and puts the focus of incident investigations on system improvement | 65.7 (67/102) | 81.6 (102/125) |
| (12) Incident investigations usually identify the causal factors that led to the incident | 59.3 (48/81) | 64.8 (81/125) |
| (13) Incidents in my organisation are investigated impartially and objectively | 53.3 (40/75) | 60.0 (75/125) |
| (14) My organisation allocates sufficient resources to incident investigations | 26.1 (18/69) | 55.2 (69/125) |
| Corrective actions | ||
| (15) The programme for learning from incidents in my organisation improves patient care | 60.6 (57/94) | 75.2 (94/125) |
| (16) Recommendations from incident investigations are acted upon | 58.2 (53/91) | 72.8 (91/125) |
| (17) My organisation turns lessons learned from incidents into actions that improve the patient care system | 58.1 (54/93) | 74.4 (93/125) |
| (18) The programme for learning from incidents in my organisation improves operational effectiveness | 50.6 (43/85) | 68.0 (85/125) |
| Learning | ||
| (19) Learning from incidents is an important policy objective of my organisation | 67.0 (69/103) | 82.4 (103/125) |
| (20) People in leadership positions are committed to learning from incidents | 61.1 (55/90) | 72.0 (90/125) |
| (21) Lessons learned from incident investigations are communicated to staff | 49.1 (53/108) | 86.4 (108/125) |
| (22) My organisation shares learning from incidents with similar organisations in the healthcare system | 22.0 (11/50) | 40.0 (50/125) |
| (23) Secrecy between different departments, specialisations or functions makes it difficult to learn from incidents* | 20.4 (20/98) | 78.4 (98/125) |
| Overall perception | ||
| (24) Please rate your overall experience with learning from incidents in this organisation | 50.5 (49/97) | 77.6 (97/125) |
| (25) Please rate the organisation's overall ability to learn from incidents | 42.9 (48/112) | 89.6 (112/125) |
*For these statements “strongly disagree” or “disagree” is interpreted as a positive response.