Welcome to the National Healthcare Safety Network, or NHSN, Quick Learn series.
This presentation will provide information on the Hemovigilance Module's Incident Form.
We will review the Hemovigilance Module program goals and describe the purpose of the Incident
Form, as well as display data entry and show you where to find the Incident Form online.
NHSN is an internet-based surveillance system operated by CDC for the purpose of tracking
healthcare-associated infections.
The mission of NHSN has expanded to include tracking of multidrug-resistant organisms,
healthcare personnel safety and vaccination compliance, and transfusion-related adverse
events.
The Biovigilance Component, which includes the Hemovigilance Module, is one of the five
components of the NHSN.
There are no fees for healthcare facilities to participate in NHSN or NHSN related activities,
including facility enrollment.
In addition, there is no cost to participating facilities for ongoing user support by CDC
staff, including assistance with facility enrollment, training, and analysis.
The goals of the NHSN Hemovigilance Module are to provide a systematic method for monitoring
transfusion-related adverse reactions and incidents, estimate the burden of transfusion
reactions, and identify emerging threats to blood safety, with the ultimate goal of improving
patient safety and minimizing morbidity and mortality among transfusion recipients.
The NHSN Hemovigilance Module collects data through five forms, including the Incident
form.
All incidents or errors that are associated with a reported adverse reaction should be
reported to NHSN, and this data is captured using The Incident Form.
The Incident Form includes information on incident discovery timing and location, occurrence
timing, and investigation results.
If multiple incidents occur in association with an adverse reaction then all of them
should be reported.
Incident data is stored by CDC and can be used to generate aggregated national incident
estimates.
The Incident form should be completed for each incident associated with an adverse transfusion
reaction, and should be linked to the associated reaction and entered within 30 days of occurrence
Only incidents associated with an adverse transfusion reaction are required.
You can submit multiple incidents associated with a single adverse reaction to NHSN.
Remember to use the same "Patient ID" listed on the submitted Adverse Reaction form
to link the associated incident.
The Incident Form is pictured on the left.
The form's corresponding Table of Instructions, shown on the right, includes detailed explanations
of each question on the form.
You can access these forms with the URLs at the top of the slide.
Let's walk through each section.
Begin by entering the Local Incident or Log number at the top of the form.
Incident ID is auto populated.
Fields with an asterisk are required.
The Incident form has three sections: Discovery, Occurrence and Investigation Results.
The Discovery section collects data related to when and how the incident was first noticed.
The next section, Occurrence, captures information on when the incident took place, incident
results and actions taken regarding the implicated product.
This section also includes an incident summary, which can be used to further describe the
incident and offer additional details.
Use the drop down menu of Process Codes and Incident Codes to complete the 'Incident Code'
part of Occurrence section.
The NHSN Incident Codes can be found in the Hemovigilance Module's Surveillance Protocol.
Incident codes are based on the Medical Event Reporting System for Transfusion Medicine
or MERS TM, the US and Transfusion Error Surveillance System or TESS, and the Canada incident classification
schemes.
Continue to enter data in the Investigation and Custom fields sections of the form and
click Save once finished.
Custom fields are variables that a facility can create and use for event or procedure-specific
data to get additional information, and are for internal use.
Only facility users with Administrative rights can add custom fields.
The system allows up to 50 custom fields, including date, numeric, or alphanumeric fields.
Entering data in custom fields is optional.
Data entered in custom fields will not be analyzed by the CDC.
To access the Incident form online go to c-d-c dot-gov-slash-n-h-s-n and click on Reporting
and Surveillance for Enrolled Facilities near the bottom of the page.
Click on Acute Care Hospitals and Facilities, scroll down, and select Blood Safety Surveillance.
Then click the Data Collection Forms drop down menu and choose Incident Form.
For more information, visit C-D-C-dot-gov-slash-NHSN.
For questions, e-mail NHSN at CDC-dot-gov and include Hemovigilance
in the subject line.