SynthesisBMJ open quality2025
Patient safety incident reporting systems and reporting practices in African healthcare organisations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ open quality, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Expert narrative review on the impact of value-based healthcare on medical quality and patient safety system restructuring.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- What predicts mucocutaneous exposure among health workers? Insights from an analytical cross-sectional study of 10 major hospitals in the Greater Accra region, Ghana.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- The dark side of nurse-manager leadership: toxic leadership behaviours, adverse-event reporting, and care quality-an interpretive descriptive study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Applied Research on the Effect of Risks on Public Health Building Projects' Performance: Empirical Results From Tanzania.TheScientificWorldJournal · 2026Article
- Insights from critical care nurses: role of leadership coaching in enhancing incident reporting culture: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Adverse events identified by a trigger tool as indicators of patient safety and safety management in a medical department.Frontiers in public health · 2025Observational
- Patient safety culture in resource-limited healthcare settings: A multicentre survey.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient safety incident reporting and learning systems are crucial for improving the safety and quality of healthcare. However, comprehensive evidence of their availability and use in African healthcare organisations is lacking. Therefore, this review aims to synthesise the existing literature on these systems and reporting practices within African healthcare organisations.
methodsA systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Five electronic databases, including PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) via EBSCOhost, Scopus, Web of Science and the Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), were searched to identify relevant records. Peer-reviewed articles and guidelines published in English were included in this review. Quality appraisal was performed using the Joanna Briggs Institute and Quality Assessment with Diverse Studies tool. A random effects model was used to compute the pooled prevalence using Stata V.17.0.
resultsA systematic search retrieved 9279 records, of which 39 (36 articles and 3 guidelines) were included in this review. Eight patient safety incident reporting and learning systems were identified, with compliance rates ranging from low (16%) to high (87%) based on the WHO criteria. The pooled prevalence of patient safety incident reporting practices was 48% (95% CI 40% to 56%). However, the studies exhibited high heterogeneity (I²=98.75%, p<0.001).
conclusionIn African healthcare organisations, it is imperative to establish robust patient safety incident reporting and learning systems, as none of the existing systems fully meet WHO criteria. In addition, optimising the existing systems and encouraging healthcare professionals to improve reporting practices will enhance patient safety and outcomes. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42023455168.
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Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.