Increasing the Rate of Incident Reporting in Maternity Services at University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB), Rwanda: A Quality Improvement Approach

Background: Maternity care is globally recognized as a high-risk area requiring continual quality improvement to ensure patient safety. Incident reporting systems play a critical role in identifying risks and preventing adverse outcomes. In 2012, hospital staff in the United States reported approximately 14% of all adverse. At the University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB), Rwanda, only 27.4% of incidents in the maternity ward were reported between January and June 2019, while 60.7% went unreported. Methods: This study adopted a pre-post interventional design conducted between January 2019 and June 2021. The Strategic Problem-Solving (SPS) approach was employed to conduct baseline assessments, identify root causes of underreporting, and implement a structured training intervention aimed at improving incident reporting practices. Results: Post-intervention data revealed a significant increase in reported incidents, rising from 23 cases (27.4%) to 56 cases (73.7%) (p < 0.001). Investigation rates improved from 6 cases (4.4%) pre-intervention to 48 cases (63.2%) post-intervention. Similarly, feedback provided on reported incidents increased from 14 cases (16.7%) to 47 cases (61.8%) after the intervention. These findings highlight marked improvements in reporting, investigation, and feedback processes following the staff training. Conclusion: Staff training significantly enhanced incident reporting practices in CHUB’s maternity department. The results led to the rejection of the null hypothesis, affirming that training interventions positively influence reporting behavior. A structured, inclusive, and data-driven approach is essential for sustaining patient safety improvements in low-resource maternity settings.