Joint Commission releases sentinel event stats, most challenging standards
The Joint Commission has released the 10 most frequently reported sentinel events. The Joint Commission gathers the information from its data base of voluntarily reported events since 1995, and cautions that the actual reported number of events “represent only a small proportion of actual events.” The top five are:
- Wrong-site surgery
- Suicide
- Operative/post-operative complication
- Delay in treatment
- Medication error
However, it’s worth noting that between March 31, 2010 and June 30, 2010 the most reported event was unintended retention of a foreign body (this even was not added to the list until 2005).
The Joint Commission also announced the top five requirements most frequently cited as non compliant for the first half of 2010. For hospitals, these included:
- RC.01.01.01, which requires complete medical records
- LS.02.01.20, which requires a means of egress
- LS.02.01.10, which requires proper fire protection features
- EC.02.03.05, which requires proper maintenance of fire equipment and features
- LS.02.01.30, which requires the building to have properly maintained building feature to protect individuals from fire dangers
It’s worth noting that no National Patient Safety Goals were included in the top five cited for hospitals
For more information, read The Joint Commission’s online publication, Joint Commission Online.
About the Author: Tami Swartz, managing editor at HCPro, Inc., writes Patient Safety Monitor Journal and helps to create product solutions for those in the quality/patient safety fields. Contact Tami by e-mailing tswartz@hcpro.com
Gary Lampman | Aug 22, 2010 | Reply
The Joint Commission is eronious if they believe that they have the entire picture toward the breathe and Depth of Medical Error and Sentinel events. National Patient Safety Goals take the back seat in favor of profits and Administrators Demands. My experience with the Joint Commission has found them to be the cheerleaders of the Health Care System events.As they maintain the veil of secrecy and give only the appearance of a oversite organization.
Informed Patients are much more effective in meeting patient safety goals,than the out of touch beauracy of the Health Care Unions.