New Zealand's 21 District Health Boards reported a total 195 serious medical mishaps between July 2006 and June 2007, a report to be released tomorrow (Thursday) will show.
It is the first time a comprehensive record of "sentinel and serious adverse events" in hospitals has been compiled.
Although the DHBs' individual records are being released, the report will warn against making comparisons because a standard system for classifying and collating information is not yet in place.
The 195 sentinel and serious events represent 2.2 for every 10,000 hospital discharges, or 0.022 percent.
Auckland reported 26, the highest number, followed by Waikato with 24, Canterbury and Waitemata with 22 each, Hawke's Bay with 20 and Capital and Coast with 14.
The rest ranged between 12 (Southland) and Tairawhiti (one).
A sentinel adverse event is one that is life threatening or has led to an unanticipated death or major loss of function not related to the patient's illness.
A serious adverse event has the potential to result in death or major loss of function not related to the patient's illness.
The overall category of adverse event means any harm caused to a patient, even if it is minor, and the report will show comparisons between New Zealand and hospitals in other countries.
The report will also urge caution with these comparisons, because different countries have different ways of defining adverse events.
The comparisons are for acute care hospitals, and New Zealand had 630 adverse events per 10,000 admissions.
In the United States the figure was 380, in Australia 1660, Britain 1170, Denmark 900 and Canada 750.
The report will say international literature does not support using the number or rate of reported incidents as a way to judge a hospital's safety.
This is because of variations in reporting, and because hospitals providing complex care for seriously ill patients are likely to have more incidents.
It will also give details of safety improvements in hospitals as a result of incident reporting.
NZPA / RadioLIVE
source: newshub archive
