August 11, 2014

When TriHealth launched our new incident (and feedback) reporting information system (IRIS) July 1, our goal was to improve patient safety with a one-stop, user-friendly tool for reporting safety incidents/near misses and feedback - customer and patient compliments or complaints. Since then, the number of patient incident reports has increased by 32 percent, which only means better care for our patients.

In addition, it's about to get more convenient for clinical team members to access IRIS. On Aug. 14, a link to IRIS will be added to EPIC to allow TriHealth Connect a direct path to the reporting software. Currently, you can find a link to IRIS on LinkNet (from any page) in three places:

• Top right corner near the search bar
• Main menu under "Quick Links"
• Footer at the bottom of the site under "Quick Links"

The location for the new link to IRIS in EPIC will be located in the top left of the screen. (See image.)

Tips for Using IRIS 

• Report incidents or feedback in IRIS. Incidents are unexpected events - or near misses formerly known as safety events - and feedback refers to a compliment or complaint reported by customers or patients.
• As a reminder, do not use Quantros to report Safety Events that occurred after July 1.
• Log in with your TriHealth ID and password, or submit an anonymous report by selecting the Incident Form or Feedback Form.
• IRIS Incident reviewers must complete all mandatory incident-specific questions before an investigation can be assigned.
• Multi-select boxes in IRIS work by double-clicking on the items you want to select. (See image.)

What Do You Think?

Do you see any changes or improvements that could be made to IRIS? Submit your suggestions using the new IRIS Request for Change Form (available on the IRIS page) to IRIS@Trihealth.com or eFax to 513 852 7473.   

More about IRIS  

Reminders about the Incident Approval Status Work Flow:

• All submitted patient incidents are reviewed by quality reviewers (i.e. Patient Safety, Pharmacy) within four working days.
• Reviewing managers review holding, waiting review incidents within seven days, then make the appropriate change in the approval status (i.e. move to being reviewed or awaiting investigation response.)
• Individuals assigned investigations should submit their investigations within seven days.
• Once all investigations are complete, i.e. Investigation/review complete,  the Primary Reviewer can assign additional investigations or determine the matter to be closed.
• Incidents with severity levels of A, B, C, D and n/a (no harm events) can be closed by the primary reviewer, i.e.  incident closed.  Incidents with higher severity levels must be closed by Patient Safety. Team Member Health and Security departments will close team member and security-related incidents.
• Incidents can be rejected if they are duplicate incidents or incidents for which there is not adequate information to investigate.  These should be discussed with a Patient Safety consultant or specialist prior to rejecting an incident.

Reminders about the Incident Approval Status work flow:

• All submitted patient incidents are reviewed by Quality Reviewers (i.e. Patient Safety, Pharmacy) within 4 working days.
• Reviewing Managers are to review Holding, waiting review incidents within 7 days and then make the appropriate change in the Approval Status, i.e. move to Being reviewed or Awaiting investigation response.
• Individuals assigned to investigations should submit their investigations within 7 days.
• Once all investigations are complete, i.e. Investigation/review complete, the Primary Reviewer can assign additional investigations or determine the matter to be closed.
• Incidents with severity levels of A, B, C, D and n/a (no harm events) can be closed by the Primary Reviewer, i.e.Incident closed.  Incidents with higher severity levels must be closed by Patient Safety.   Team Member Health and Security will close team member and security related incidents.
• Incidents can be Rejected if they are duplicate incidents or incidents where there is not adequate information to investigate.  Possible rejections should be discussed with Patient Safety Consultant or Specialist prior to rejecting an incident.  

Do You Need Help?  

• For questions relating to use of IRIS, call the Patient Safety Hotline at 513 569 5432.
• For questions relating to the feedback module, call Patient Relations at Bethesda North, 513 865 1115, or Good Samaritan, 513 862 2528.
• For technical issues, call the Help Desk at 513 569 5100. 
• Quick Reference Guides are available in clinical/clinical-tools/iris/.
• In addition, eLearns are available on HR Central.
• IRIS training is available upon request: Contact Patient Safety for one-on-one or group training.