Standardizing patient safety event reporting between care delivered or purchased by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
Event reporting is an essential component of patient safety improvement efforts. This retrospective study compared patient safety event incidents reported in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community care (CC) settings during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022). The researchers identified fluctuations in safety event reporting over the study period, which may be attributable to disruptions in care introduced by the pandemic such as burnout or resource challenges, as well as preexisting organizational factors (e.g., safety practices, safety culture, reporting behaviors).