The practice of incident reporting and management: current challenges and opportunities for mental health trusts in England

Purpose: New patient safety frameworks are being implemented to improve the impact of incident reporting and management across the National Health Service (NHS) in England. This study aims to examine the current practices in this domain of patient safety in a sample of mental health trusts, a setting in which limitations in the current practice of serious incident management have been reported. The authors present key recommendations to maximise the opportunities to improve current incident reporting and management practice. Design/methodology/approach: Ethical approval for the study was granted. A Web-based questionnaire was designed to examine current practices concerning incident reporting and management. It was refined based on consultation. Patient safety incident managers within mental health trusts in England were recruited. Twenty-nine mental health trusts responded, from a total of 51. The questionnaire study data were analysed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings: Current approaches used to report and manage incidents have been established and variation in practice demonstrated. A key finding for attention is that the training and education that investigators of serious incidents receive falls short of the recommended minimum national standard of 15 h, with a sample mean of 10.3 h and median of 8.0 h. Originality/value: Recommendations at a local and national level are presented, which, if implemented, can maximise the impact of incident reporting and management practices in mental health trusts. Future qualitative research is indicated, to understand the perceptual experience and meaning behind the findings across a wider group of stakeholders.