Type and impact of clinical incidents identified by a voluntary reporting system covering 130 small animal practices in mainland Europe

Background Veterinary healthcare can be a complex process and may lead to unwanted, potentially harmful patient safety incidents as a consequence, negatively impacting both the practice team and client satisfaction. The aim of this study was to identify how such incidents impact cats and dogs by analysing reports gathered in a large-scale voluntary incident reporting system. Methods Descriptive statistical analysis was used to study a total of 2155 incident reports, submitted by 130 practices on mainland Europe. Results Incidents caused harm in more than 40% of reports. Medication-related incidents were the most frequent type of incident recorded (40%). Treatment-related incidents were the most common type of incident causing patient harm (55%). Anaesthesia-related incidents were the most severe type of incident, resulting in patient death in 18% of these reports. Most incidents were reported from hospital wards, and a significantly higher proportion of cats were harmed by incidents compared to dogs. Conclusion This study demonstrates that patients are regularly harmed by incidents, with medication-related incidents being most common. In depth understanding of incident data can help develop interventions to reduce the risk of incident recurrence.