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Descriptive Epidemiology of Safety Events at an Academic Medical Center
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Descriptive Epidemiology of Safety Events at an Academic Medical Center

Alexandre R. Marra, Abdullah Algwizani, Mohammed Alzunitan, Theresa M. H. Brennan and Michael B. Edmond
International journal of environmental research and public health, Vol.17(1), p.353
01/01/2020
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17010353
PMCID: PMC6982027
PMID: 31947963
url
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010353View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Background: Adverse safety events in healthcare are of great concern, and despite an increasing focus on the prevention of error and harm mitigation, the epidemiology of safety events remains incomplete. Methods: We performed an analysis of all reported safety events in an academic medical center using a voluntary incident reporting surveillance system for patient safety. Safety events were classified as: serious (reached the patient and resulted in moderate to severe harm or death); precursor (reached the patient and resulted in minimal or no detectable harm); and near miss (did not reach the patient). Results: During a three-year period, there were 31,817 events reported. Most of the safety events were precursor safety events (reached the patient and resulted in minimal harm or no detectable harm), corresponding to 77.3%. Near misses accounted for 10.8%, and unsafe conditions for 11.8%. The number of reported serious safety events was low, accounting for only 0.1% of all safety events. Conclusions: The reports analysis of these events should lead to a better understanding of risks in patient care and ways to mitigate it.
 Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences & Ecology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Science & Technology

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