INCIDENT REPORTING: A COMPARISON OF HOSPITAL PHARMACY AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY 
 

Eileen McBride and Sarah Stewart, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Quintiles (UK) Ltd., Edinburgh 
 

Aim of Study 
 

Incident reporting is critical in hospital pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry as both sectors are associated with risk and potentially serious consequences^(1,2). Reporting and investigation of incidents allows changes in practice to be made and facilitates learning. However, to aid this learning, it is fundamental that staff are aware of, understand and use incident reporting procedures. 
 

This research aims to investigate incident reporting in a hospital pharmacy (Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh [RIE]) and an industrial pharmaceutical company (Quintiles). The research focuses on the procedures and form for incident reporting, the staff awareness of these, and attitudes towards them. 
 

Materials and Methods 
 

Staff interviews were carried out on 1^st October 2003 in order to generate opinion statements to facilitate the design of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was piloted during November 2003 and then modified accordingly. The final questionnaire was distributed to all the staff in Building D, Quintiles (n=86) and the pharmacy department, RIE (n=82) on 8^th December 2003 with a deadline of 5^th January 2004 for completion. A database was constructed into which the results were input before being compared and contrasted across the two sectors. Subsequently, a list of recommendations was prepared.