Most Canadians who access health services receive safe care. However, sometimes there are adverse effects—unintended injuries or complications that arise from health care management and result in death, disability or prolonged hospital stay.
CIHI is working to help understand the issues related to patient safety and the provision of safe care. We are also helping to measure improvements in the safety of care provided. Our work includes a number of initiatives, from the development and reporting of indicators across the continuum of care to other quality and patient safety analyses and initiatives.
One initiative is the National System for Incident Reporting (NSIR). NSIR is a reporting system developed by CIHI to enable both system-wide and local solutions to medication incidents.
We welcome your feedback and questions
- Contact us at nsir@cihi.ca
- Have a data inquiry or research question? Make a custom data request.
Patient safety information
Reports and analyses
Reports and analyses about patient safety
- Hospitalizations, Early Revisions and Infections Following Joint Replacement Surgery (Mar. 2008)
- Restraint Use and Other Control Interventions for Mental Health Inpatients in Ontario (Aug. 2011)
- Seniors and Falls (Dec. 2010) (PDF, 279 KB)
- The Use of Selected Psychotropic Drugs Among Seniors on Public Drug Programs in Canada, 2001 to 2010 (Mar. 2012)
- Patient Safety in Ontario Acute Care Hospitals: A Snapshot of Hospital-Acquired Infection Control Practices (Oct. 2008)
- Patient Safety in Canada: An Update (Aug. 2007)
- In Focus: A National Look at Sepsis (2009) (PDF, 534 KB)
- Ontario Hospital Reports series
Databases and data sources for patient safety
National System for Incident Reporting
The National System for Incident Reporting (NSIR) is a free, web-based reporting system used by Canadian health care facilities to securely and anonymously share, analyze and discuss medication and IV fluid incidents.
NSIR data and analyses inform quality improvement activities at all levels—from ward or unit projects to pan-Canadian initiatives—to foster improvements in health care delivery.
NSIR features
- No cost: Participation requires only CIHI training and internet access
- Comprehensive: Near-miss to catastrophic events collected with a streamlined data set
- Practical: System accepts data uploads from a risk management system or direct data entry
- Flexible: Users have identifiable access to their own data and de-identified access to data from other facilities
- Supportive: Web-based tools give users the ability to analyze and discuss incidents
- Insightful: Learn about ground-level strategies and recommendations that mitigate or prevent harm
For more about NSIR, see Related Resources.
CIHI has a number of other health services databases that contain quality-of-care information. These are described in detail in Types of Care.
Metadata about patient safety
Metadata is information about data. It helps users understand and interpret data from a specific source.
Learn about the National System for Incident Reporting (NSIR).
Key projects on patient safety
- Canadian Medication Incident Reporting and Prevention System (CMIRPS)
- Canadian Hospital Reporting Project (CHRP) reports include patient safety indicators such as in-hospital fractures, nursing sensitive adverse events for medical and surgical patients, and obstetric birth trauma (with and without instrumentation).
CIHI has also developed abstracting guidelines for an optional project in the Discharge Abstract Database for hospitals participating in the Improved Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction intervention.
Related resources for patient safety
- National System for Incident Reporting (video)
- NSIR Long-Term Care Pilot Test: Executive Summary (2012) (PDF, 1,126 KB)
- NSIR: Responding to System Needs (PDF, 103 KB)
- NSIR Overview (Spring 2011) (PDF, 951 KB)
- Learning From Medication Incident Data (April 2012) (PDF, 132 KB)
Related Content
News
Standards
