How to report an incident or an adverse event

On this page
A video walkthrough of this guide. Narrated in Spanish, with subtitles.

Recording what went wrong is a patient-safety obligation, not a confession. What is not reported cannot be fixed.

Incident and adverse event are not the same

It is the only decision that matters in this form, and the platform asks it in those words:

What happenedExample
IncidenteA process failure that did no harm to the patientThe wrong medication was prepared and caught before it was given
Evento adversoCare that unintentionally did cause harmIt was given, and the patient reacted

If you are unsure, ask one thing: was the patient harmed?

Before you start

The attention must be saved. Otherwise the section only says “Guarda la atención para registrar eventos”.

Steps

  1. Open the attention from the patient’s Línea de tiempo.

  2. Scroll to Eventos adversos, open it (it starts closed) and click Agregar.

    Add an event

  3. Choose incidente or evento adverso, using the question above.

    Choose which it was

  4. Describe what happened — the facts, not the blame. Whoever reads it later needs to follow the sequence.

  5. Choose the Severidad: Leve, Moderado or Grave.

  6. Click Guardar.

    It is recorded

Tip

Write the description the way you would tell a colleague arriving for the next shift: what was done, what was seen, what was done next. That is what stops it happening again.