News Brief: Sentinel-event cases don't just happen in ED
While hospital emergency departments (ED) are the source of more than half of all "sentinel event" cases of patient death or permanent injury due to treatment delays, such problems can occur in any hospital unit, says the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Of 55 reported cases of delays in treatment included in data cited in a recent JCAHO sentinel event alert, 29 were ED-related, while 26 cases originated in hospital intensive care units, medical-surgical units, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, freestanding and hospital-based ambulatory care services, the operating room, and in the home care setting.
Of the 55 cases of delays in treatment, 52 resulted in patient deaths. For more information, go to the organization's web site, www.jcaho.org.
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