OOPS: test of a structure for recording patient safety events

Abstract

An Ontology Of Patient Safety (OOPS-II) for handheld interfaces was developed from a 6-axis primary care taxonomy of errors. Using a hand-held Electronic Student Encounter Log (ESEL), 3rd year medical students were asked to record data from 3 written scenarios involving medical errors. Students were encouraged to use a series of drop down menus to record error types. Students could augment their selections with free text. Although some variation existed, students' answers were much more consistent than in our previous interfaces.