​A hospital good catch program can be an effective means to improve patient safety. Good catches occur up to 100 times more frequently than Serious Events, but often go underreported. Recognizing and rewarding staff can encourage good catch submissions and provide more opportunities to improve patient safety. Following aggregate event analysis and facility interviews, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority concluded that good catch programs can help hospitals more effectively analyze reported data and implement risk reduction strategies. Additionally, using a Good Catch Comparison report available through the Authority's Patient Safety Liaisons can identify facility-specific event types or care areas that are reporting above or below aggregate peer rates, potentially highlighting successful practices or targets for improvement efforts.

A "good catch-to-Serious Event" ratio was calculated by comparing the number of good catch reports (i.e., events submitted with harm scores A, B1, B2) to the number of Serious Event reports (i.e., harm scores E, F, G, H, I), creating a proportion that could be expressed as x:1, or simply x.

The ratio of good catches to Serious Events increased from 5.62 in 2005 (n = 33,777/6,008) to 10.34 in 2016 (n = 54,472/5,269).

Note: As reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2016.