Help Me Investigate user Melanie Hall has been using Freedom of Information requests to look at ‘hospital blunders’: serious untoward incidents (SUIs) and ‘never events’. She reports:
“Surgeons operating on the wrong side of the body, swabs left inside patients after surgery and the wrong implant being used were among the blunders happening at NHS health services across England last year”
Overall, her investigation reveals at least 6,000 serious untoward incidents (SUIs) and more than 100 ‘never events’.
SUIs include “cases of patients acquiring MRSA in hospital and confidential information leaks.”
“Never events are serious incidents in healthcare settings which are largely preventable and should therefore never happen, and these fall into 25 categories, such as wrong site surgery, wrong implant/prosthesis, retained foreign object post-operation, and falls from unrestricted windows.”
You can find out more about Melanie’s findings, including full data and reaction from the charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA), in her post.
Do you know of any American groups that investigate occurances in hospitals. I would like to get the notes of an incident that happened to my husband but I don’t want the hospital to know that I am investigating because I may file a law suit. Thank you.
I don’t, I’m afraid. We don’t have any US contributors at the moment – you’re welcome to join in if you like!