Incident reporting in anaesthesiology

Incident reporting can be a powerful tool to detect weaknesses in the complex system of anaesthesiology. Having its roots in aviation, incident reporting today is used in a variety of medical disciplines at the local and even on the national level. Strength of incident reporting is the potential for learning from rare and potentially dangerous events. To properly set up an incident reporting system requires certain conditions to support and motivate reporters. It, furthermore, needs a sound definition or a model of a critical incident as well as a strategy to analyse the reported events. In Europe, a number of countries already run a national reporting system in anaesthesiology with large collections of critical events. These national systems, furthermore, distribute hazard warnings to spread the information on critical incidents among all specialists in that country.