Joint Commission releases 2017 sentinel event stats

Unintended retention of a foreign body, patient falls, and wrong-site surgery top The Joint Commission’s full list of reported sentinel events for 2017.

Every year, The Joint Commission complies a list of all the sentinel events that hospitals reported to them. Since the list only comes from self-reported data, it tends to underrepresent the real frequency of these problems. However, it’s useful in identifying trends, causes, and outcomes of adverse events. The top 10 sentinel events in 2017 were:

1. Unintended retention of a foreign body
2. Falls
3. Wrong patient, wrong site, wrong procedure
4. Suicide
5. Delays in treatment
6. Other unanticipated events
7. Criminal events
8. Medication errors
9. Operative/postoperative complication
10. Self-inflicted injury

The only new addition to the list since 2016 is “self-inflicted injuries,” which replaced “perinatal death/injury.” While a few hopped up or down one on the list, for the most part, there wasn’t much change.