Objectives: This study aims to explore the differences in awareness of patient safety by and among professions by using the incident reporting data at Shimane University Hospital (SUH) in Japan.

Methods: Electronic Incident Reporting System was renovated in 2009. The 27,447 incident reports filed by staff in the past decade from 2009 to 2018. The incident reports are classified into eight categories. Lag time as a variable was determined at the time between the occurrence of an incident and the reporting to Patient Safety Department, and it was compared among professionals.

Results: SUH is a tertiary referral university hospital with 600 beds. The number of hospital staff was 1850 hospital staffs in average in the decade. Annual number of reports has been gradually increasing, 1099 reports in 2009 and 2516 reports in 2018, and total number of reports was 24473. Out of them, the 22733 reports eligible for this study included 1,389 reports filed by doctors, 20951 reports filed by nurses and 393 reports filed by pharmacists.

With regard to category, the number of Drug related, Drainage tube and other tubes and Falls/Slips were 7496, 5795 and 4713 reports, in decreasing order. Out of the 7496 Drug related reports, 399 reports by doctors, 6721 reports by nurses and 376 reports by pharmacists, respectively. Examining lag time of 7491 drug related reports by professions, lag times were 9.74 ± 31.725 for physicians (n=399), 2.98 ± 11.324 for nurses (n=6716), and 14.18 ± 24.073 for pharmacists (n=377).

Conclusions:

From the viewpoint of number and lag times of reports among professionals, nurses may be the highest in the awareness of patient safety. Unlike physicians and nurses, pharmacists have few opportunities to contact patients directly. And, they are likely to submit reports after the discussion of the problems of incidents.