“Safety” is a key dimension of the Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland [1]. One aspect of patient safety is adverse event (AE) management. “Learning from adverse events through reporting and review: A national framework for Scotland” [2], 2015 recommends that review of category 2 AEs are completed within 42 days. A 4-month deep dive of Anaesthetic “moderate” adverse events (MAE) at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), demonstrated that this is achieved 0% of the time. Timely review of AEs enables rapid sharing of patient safety issues, action points and learning points. Using the Model for Improvement, I planned to reduce the time to MAE Datix closure, and to improve the quality of MAE review. Aim: 50% of Anaesthetic MAEs at RIE to be closed on Datix system within 42 days from reporting, by May 2016.
