ECRI now accepts AI-related incident reports through its Problem Reporting Network. The patient safety nonprofit wants errors, malfunctions and near misses involving AI tools to reach its investigators.
The call goes out to providers, systems and clinicians: send in any incident where AI may have contributed to an error. Incidents that reached a patient and those caught early both qualify. ECRI reviews each submission and reports back to whoever filed it. Confirmed dangers produce hazard alerts for manufacturers, providers and regulators.
The network, which has served healthcare since 1972, sits alongside the ECRI and ISMP Patient Safety Organization, a database of more than 8 million safety reports.
The expansion follows a survey in which 124 safety and quality leaders told ECRI about their AI experiences. About 31% had seen an output they believed was incorrect or misleading. Nine percent said such an error reached a patient or changed a care decision. Ambient scribes appeared most often in the responses, at 37%.
“We don’t yet have a clear picture of its downstream impact in healthcare,” said Scott Lucas, PhD, ECRI’s vice president of devices, therapeutics and technology. “We must look to evidence and data to understand the evolving risks.”
