Study of Adverse Events in Private Healthcare. Confidence Project for Patient Safety

Objectives To investigate and identify priority areas and issues of patient safety and analyse which patient and health care characteristics are related to Adverse Events (AE). Methods Retrospective cohort study to identify AE reviewing medical records of in-patients. Information was obtained from all patients attended between 15 and 30 November 2009 in eight facilities committed to the project. Results Of the 927 patients, 40 patients had any injury, of which 23 were related to healthcare. Thus, the percentage of patients with any AE associated with health care was 2.48% (95%CI, 1.43%-3.54%). Age, comorbidity and use of invasive devices explained the occurrence of an AE. Of these, 33.3% (8 AE) were considered slight, 33.3% (8) moderate and 33.3% (8) severe. Half (50%) of AE were considered preventable. Conclusions The frequency of AE found was low, possibly due to study design and the idiosyncrasy of the patients: age, comorbidity and use of invasive devices. The AE found have a similar impact and preventability as those identified in public sector. (C) 2010 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.