The Joint Commission has reviewed the most recent statistics from January 2020 to June 2020. The following number of reported events have been reviewed.
Care Management Events – 185
Surgical or Invasive Procedure Events – 131
Unassigned – 46
Suicide – 41
Protection Events – 38
Environment Events – 12
Product or Device Events – 4
It is good to see that organizations are still voluntarily reporting sentinel events during the Covid-19 response but it is still estimated that only about 2% of all sentinel events get reported. Reporting is important in helping the entire healthcare industry understand ‘cause’ and other related factors surrounding these event episodes. As operations normalize after Covid-19, organizations should consider taking a proactive approach in conducting risk assessments, process reviews and team discussions around 6 of these listed categories (leaving out unassigned) to ensure that all patients are receiving the safest care in the safest setting – thus leading to a ‘zero harm’ environment of care.
For more details on the Sentinel Event statistics, please visit the Joint Commission website.
