Welcome at CIRLS

The appropriate use of the information a reporting system produces is of utmost importance.

Terms such as «critical incident or adverse event reporting» are likely to lead to apprehension and a perception of intrusion amongst chiropractors and chiropractic organizations. Therefore, it is essential that a professional organization encourages active learning from incidents in order to achieve an «information culture» amongst its members. The airline industry, e.g., has provided ample evidence that «safety cultures», in which open reporting and balanced analysis are encouraged, contribute to better safety records.

This website allows receiving data, processing the information and generating recommendations. The aim is to provide a learning experience for reporters and organizations alike in order to achieve an improved safety environment for patients with prevention as one of the cornerstones.

Only Swiss Chiropractors can submit, read, and comment reports on the password-protected site. Reports and discussions are kept absolutely anonymous.

It is primarily legislation – the Swiss Sickness and Accident Insurance and the Swiss Law on Medical Professions – that drives quality management for patient safety in chiropractic practices in Switzerland.

To Err is Human

Human error has traditionally been viewed as the factor that immediately precedes or precipitates an adverse event or serious failure. If something goes wrong at the immediate practitioner-patient interface, it would seem obvious that an individual must have been responsible.

When an adverse event occurs, the crucial issue is not «who caused the error?» but how and why the defenses failed, and what factors contributed to create the conditions in which the error occurred.¹

Therefore, reporting is the key element to detect patient safety problems; it can play a fundamental role in enhancing quality and safety by subsequent learning from adverse events that have occurred to others.


¹ Reason J. Managing the risks of organisational accidents. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997.