Electronic occurrence variance reporting system: A reliable multi-platform system for the low-income settings

Background: Reducing waste, improving quality, boosting treatment efficacy, and providing safe patient-centered health care are the top priorities for most healthcare organizations. A reliable incident reporting system is a method that can help decision-makers stay aware of any incidents that violate patient safety guidelines, examine the probable causes, and come up with new policies that can prevent future patient safety violations.Methods: In this study, we present our newly developed electronic Occurrence Variance Reporting system (eOVR), made specifically for low-income countries with a cost as low as 5 USD/month, along with the steps required for the reporting and the potential benefits to the whole healthcare system. This system was developed using a third-party application, AppSheet, which provides already established customizable forms that would help any hospital to develop its reporting system without the need for programming experts or the expensive infrastructure needed for it.Results: Our system is composed of three main stages that allow the participating members to report, taking a decision, and evaluating the need for further actions. We implemented a mixture of electronic tools designed to fulfill the purpose of reporting incidents and facilitating the analysis of the system gaps, especially in times of crisis using an incident report that can be generated automatically and immediately using this system.Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first electronic model of OVR developed to be used in individual hospitals in low-income countries without the need for expensive infrastructure or hiring a professional programmer. This model could save time and offer more flexibility and versatility to both the incident reporter and the decision-makers. Lastly, offering a low-cost solution, as low as 5 USD/month, would encourage the hospitals to participate in incident reporting, as well as enhance the digitalization process in low-income countries.