Since 2004, the Board of Directors and management have repeatedly focused attention on making it possible for all staff members to report incidents safely. The Incident Reporting Committee (IRC) has developed an electronic reporting form that can be used to report incidents anonymously from any computer at UMC Utrecht. Although originally it was thought that doing away with paper forms would lead to a drop in the number of reports, the opposite proved to be true. Because the reports to the IRC are made in real time, the committee is also able to start an investigation much more quickly following an incident.
Until 2003 the IRC received about 650 incident reports annually. In 2004 - the first year of the Patient Safety Program - this amount increased to 950 and in 2006 it had futher increased to over 1300 reports annually.
The increase in reporting is not seen as an increase in the amount incidents, rather as an increase in the willingness of personnel to report incidents.
Since April of 2006, all new employees are shown a 12-minute film during their orientation. This film explains the general principles of patient safety, emphasizes that errors are to be learned from, and explains how the IRC works. It ends with a short message from the chairman of the Board of Directors. The film has also been distributed among the various departments so all employees have a chance to see it.