Adverse events affect more than a third (38%) of adults undergoing surgery, finds a study of admissions to 11 hospitals in the US state of Massachusetts, published by The BMJ today. Of the 1009 admissions analysed, nearly half were classified as major (resulting in serious, life threatening or fatal harm) and the majority were considered as potentially preventable. Although this study may not fully represent hospitals at large, the findings show that "adverse events remain widespread in contemporary healthcare, causing substantial and preventable patient harm during hospital admission," say the researchers.
Adverse events - negative effects of treatment, such as a drug or surgery - during hospital admission represent a major cause of patient harm. Since the 1991 Harvard Medical Practice Study revealed the extent of unintended injuries caused by medical care, there have been transformative changes in surgical care, such as increased use of minimally invasive procedures, implementation of surgical safety checklists, and enhanced recovery after surgery protocols. But an updated assessment of surgical safety is needed to establish a precise reference point for continuous quality improvement.
Researchers therefore set out to estimate the frequency, severity and preventability of adverse events associated with perioperative care (from before surgery to full recovery), and to describe the setting and professions concerned. Their findings are based on a randomly selected sample of 10.
