Patient safety is one of the most important challenges facing healthcare organizations in the world. Patient safety programs aim to avoid the events caused to the patient during their care, through strategies aimed at guaranteeing infection control, safe use of medications, equipment, clinical practice and environment. However, errors in health care are often due to weak information systems and their causes can be corrected by identifying the incidents and events presented during the care. Each country must have solid and reliable health information systems (HIS) to generate its own data, in order to monitor the different health programs and thus report on their management. In many countries, SISs are weak, incomplete and fragmented, with problems related to infrastructure, interoperability, connectivity, lack of training and availability to health care personnel. The objective of this study was to conduct a rapid systematic review of the literature about the experiences reported by users or health professionals with the Health Information Systems of Patient Safety Programs (PSP). 98 articles were identified in the Medline database, of which 5 articles with a qualitative approach were included. The results showed problems with the definition of concepts related to patient safety, fear of professionals to report events or incidents, reluctance to use SIS due to interoperability or communication problems. The qualitative studies related to HIS of the PSP are scarce and the publications found have been carried out in countries such as Iran, Taiwan, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands.
Ensuring the Safety of Health Information Systems: Using Heuristics for Patient Safety