A study published on November 13 2024 in BMJ entitled “Safety of inpatient care in surgical settings: cohort study” concluded: “Adverse events were identified in more than one third of patients admitted to hospital for surgery, with nearly half of the events classified as major and most potentially preventable. These findings emphasize the critical need for ongoing improvement in patient safety, involving all health professionals, throughout perioperative care.”
The researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study that included hospitals that could provide reliable safety estimates for patients aged 18 years and older at each location. They selected the 11 participating hospitals to represent a mix of both large and small facilities that were part of three different healthcare systems: two had fewer than 100 beds, four had 100-200 beds, two had 201-500 beds, and three had more than 700 beds.
The study anlayzed 1,009 patients from a randomly selected sample of 64, 121 adults admitted for surgery during 2018 in the 11 Massachusetts hospitals. The specialties associated with the admissions were orthopedics (31.2%), cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (22.1%), gastrointestinal surgery (15.4%), urology and gynecology surgery (11.8%), and neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, endocrine surgery, head and neck surgery, oral surgery, or eye surgery (19.6%). Adverse events were identified in 38.0%, with major adverse events occurring in 15.9%. Of 593 identified adverse events, 353 (59.5%) were potentially preventable and 123 (20.7%) were definitely or probably preventable. The most common adverse events were related to surgical procedures (49.3%), followed by adverse drug events (26.6%), healthcare associated infections (12.4%), patient care events (11.2%), and blood transfusion reactions (0.5%). Adverse events were most frequent in general care units (48.8%), followed by operating rooms (26.1%), intensive care units (13.0%), recovery rooms (3.3%), emergency departments (1.8%), and other in-hospital locations (7.0%). Professions most involved were attending physicians (89.5%), followed by nurses (58.9%), residents (49.5%), advanced level practitioners (28.5%), and fellows (11.5%).
The researchers reported: “Within the weighted random sample of 1009 admitted patients, we identified at least one adverse event in 383 (38.0%) and at least one major adverse event (ie, serious harm resulting in substantial intervention or prolonged recovery, life threatening event, or death) in 160 (15.9%). Overall, 292 (28.9%) admissions involved at least one clinically significant adverse event, 143 (14.2%) at least one serious adverse event, 25 (2.5%) at least one life threatening event, and 6 (0.6%) a fatal event.”
The researchers stated: “Compared with adverse event incidence rates previously estimated from the SafeCare study across all inpatient admissions, the higher rates observed in this subsample suggest that adverse events are more likely to occur in surgical care than in non-surgical care.”
If you or a loved one may have been injured (or worse) as a result of surgical malpractice in the United States, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your surgical medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a surgery medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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