Abstract

Factors influencing the reporting of patient safety incidents that result from health information technology (HIT) failure are poorly understood. We examined whether organizational justice is associated with the non-reporting of HIT system-related safety incidents among registered nurses. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from nurses (N = 1399) who reported encountering a HIT system-related patient safety incident within the past 12 months. Selecting one or more reasons for not filing an incident report from a predefined list of potential reasons was used as an indicator for non-reporting. Logistic regression models were fit to predict the reason-specific likelihood of non-reporting with organizational justice. High organizational justice was associated with a reduced likelihood of non-reporting if non-reporting occurred because reporting was too hard or took too much time (OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.96), because the reporting had no impact on the organization’s processes (OR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.76), because the respondent was worried about the consequences (OR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.87), or because the respondent was not required to file a report (OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.89). Justice was not associated with non-reporting if it occurred due to the lack of access to a reporting system, because no actual harm was caused to the patient, or some other, non-specified reason. The associations were robust to adjustment for several nurse and work characteristics. The results suggest that non-reporting of HIT system-related safety incidents is less common in a high-justice work environment. Fair treatment of nurses may encourage their reporting of safety incidents.