Mandatory error reporting in Saskatchewan
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* Amy Jo Ehman

Saskatchewan has become the first jurisdiction in Canada to require health districts to report all medical errors to the province. 

The Saskatchewan Department of Health will analyze the details of each reported event and issue province-wide alerts in cases where similar incidents could be prevented. 

“We're quite excited about this,” says Duncan Fisher, the department's assistant deputy minister. “Mistakes do happen from time to time, no matter how good systems are, and sometimes human error does occur. We want to minimize that as much as possible.”

Information released about the error will include details about the incident and corrective steps taken, but will not include the names of the patient or the medical professionals involved.

“This isn't about blaming individuals, this is about patient safety and trying to identify opportunities for system-wide change,” says Fisher. “We want people to share information about things that have gone wrong with the hope of preventing them from going wrong again someplace else.”

Legislation requiring the health districts to report medical errors took effect in September. Six types of critical incidents must be reported: serious surgical errors; crippling mistakes in medication; patient disappearance or suicide inside a health facility; errors resulting in death or disability to mother or child during labour; and serious injury due to delays in transportation or emergency care.

The legislation also requires health districts to report criminal activities such as impersonation of a doctor, abduction of a patient and incidents of physical or sexual assault.

For the past two years, districts have reported on a voluntary basis. There has been no reluctance to make the reporting mandatory, Fisher says. 

In one well-publicized case in the province, a retractor was left inside a patient after surgery. Details of that incident were reported to the Department of Health and resulted in a province-wide alert, Fisher says.

“We're showing that patient safety is important to us, and we have to create more of that culture within the health system,” he says. 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan supports the legislation.

“Patients deserve to receive the safest possible treatment, and, as a physician, I applaud initiatives that promote a culture of safety,” said Dr. Dennis Kendel, the college's registrar. — *Amy Jo Ehman*, Saskatoon