JCAHO releases most common sentinel events

JCAHO releases most common sentinel events

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has released a list of the most common sentinel events since 1995 in ambulatory centers and hospitals.

For ambulatory centers, the most common events are:

• wrong-site surgery (36.7% of sentinel events);
• clinically significant delays in treatment (26.5%);
• operative or post-op complications (14.3%);
• medication errors (8.2%);
• anesthesia-related events (4.1%).

The most common events in hospitals are:

• operative or post-op complications (19%);
• wrong-site surgery (17.6%);
• medication errors (14.7%);
• suicide (5.4%);
• delays in treatment (5%).