A Study of Patient Safety with Special Reference to Incidence of Adverse Events taking Place in Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India

Background Adverse events in hospitals are now widely agreed to be a serious problem, annually killing more people than breast cancer or AIDS. Aims: To study incidence of adverse events in admitted patients by current record review. Aims To study incidence of adverse events in admitted patients by current record review. Materials and methods A two-staged prospective study for a period of 1 year was carried out. Current records of inpatients were screened for adverse events. The adverse event was categorized as preventable or nonpreventable on the basis of World Health Organization (WHO) set confidence score of preventability. Results A total of 3150 patients were screened, among which 488 (15.5%) patients were screened positive for having adverse event. Readmission during last 12 months to any given healthcare for the same health condition (32.79%) was the most common adverse event seen. Hospital acquired infection/sepsis (26.64%) was the second most common adverse event seen. The 78% of adverse events presented with untoward outcome among which 81.8% of adverse events resulted in admission in wards, 4.33% adverse events were associated with death, 23.4% adverse events were associated with disability at discharge and 35.5% adverse events were associated with prolonged stay. A total of 67.4% of studied adverse events showed signs of healthcare team responsible for causing adverse events, among which 76.8% of adverse events occurred outside SKIMS before the index admission. A total of 71.3% of adverse events were categorized preventable. Conclusion Hospital acquired infection was found responsible for prolonged stay of the patients. Proper referral policy must be followed by the department of health services. How to cite this article Mirza M, Jan FA, Mumtaz SH, Sofi FA, Wani RA. A Study of Patient Safety with Special Reference to Incidence of Adverse Events taking Place in Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2015;3(2):91-97.