Comparison between the WHO-CFICPS and the PRISMA classification of safety-related events in a radiation oncology department

Abstract

Introduction: Describing Safety-Related Events (SREs) in a radiotherapy (RT) department and comparing WHO-CFICPS (World Health Organization's Conceptual Framework For The International Classification For Patient Safety) and PRISMA (Prevention and Recovery Information System for Monitoring and Analysis) methods for classifying SREs.

Methods: From February 2017 to October 2020, two Quality Managers (QMs) randomly classified 1173 SREs using 13 incident types of WHO-CFICPS. The same two QMs, reclassified the same SREs according to 20 PRISMA incident codes. Statistical analysis was performed to assess the association between the 13 incident types of WHO-CFICPS and the 20 PRISMA codes. The chi-squared and post-hoc tests using adjusted standardized residuals were applied to detect the association between the two systems.

Results: There was a significant association between WHO-CFICPS incident types and PRISMA codes (P < 0.001). Ninety-two percent of all SREs were categorized using 4 of 13 WHO-CFICPS incident types including Clinical Process/Procedure (n = 448, 38.2%), Clinical Administration (n = 248, 21.1%), Documentation (n = 226, 19.2%) and Resources/Organizational Management (n = 15,613.3%). According to PRISMA classification, 14 of the 20 codes were used to describe the same SREs. PRISMA captured 41 Humans Skill Slips from 226 not better defined WHO-CFICPS Documentation Incidents, 38 Human Rule-based behaviour Qualification from not better defined 447 Clinical Process/Procedure and 40 Organization Management priority events from 156 not better defined WHO-CFICPS Resources/Organizational Management events (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Although there was a significant association between WHO-CFICPS and PRISMA, The PRISMA method provides a more detailed insight into SREs compared to WHO-CFICPS in a RT department.

Keywords: medical errors/classification; medical errors/statistics and numerical data*; patient safety; radiation oncology/organization and administration*; risk management.