Monitoring Preventable Adverse Events and Near Misses: Number and Type Identified Differ Depending on Method Used

This study aimed to investigate how many preventable adverse events (PAEs) and near misses are identified through the methods structured record review, Web-based incident reporting (IR), and daily safety briefings, and to distinguish the type of events identified by each method.

One year of retrospective data from 2017 were collected from one patient cohort in a 422-bed acute care hospital. Preventable adverse events and near misses were collected from the hospital's existing resources and presented descriptively as number per 1000 patient-days.

The structured record review identified 19.9 PAEs; the IR system, 3.4 PAEs; and daily safety briefings, 5.4 PAEs per 1000 patient-days. The most common PAEs identified by the record review method were drug-related PAEs, pressure ulcers, and hospital-acquired infections. The most common PAEs identified by the IR system and daily safety briefings were fall injury and pressure ulcers, followed by skin/superficial vessel injuries for the IR system and hospital-acquired infections for the daily safety briefings. Incident reporting and daily safety briefings identified 7.8 and 31.9 near misses per 1000 patient-days, respectively. The most common near misses were related to how care is organized.

The different methods identified different amounts and types of PAEs and near misses. The study supports that health care organizations should adopt multiple methods to get a comprehensive review of the number and type of events occurring in their setting. Daily safety briefings seem to be a particularly suitable method for assessing an organization's inherent security and may foster a nonpunitive culture.