Although sentinel events still occur, the incidence of sentinel events has declined in most measures between 2012 and 2014, according to a recent report by The Joint Commission.
Sentinel events are unexpected events that result in a patient's death or a serious physical or psychological injury. Examples of the most commonly occurring sentinel events include unintended retention of a foreign object, falls and performing procedures on the wrong patient. Hospitals are the most common setting in which sentinel events occur, according to The Joint Commission.
In 2012, there were 901 total sentinel events reviewed by The Joint Commission. In 2013 there 887, and so far in 2014 there have been 394 sentinel events.
The following list shows trends in the rates of the top 10 sentinel events reviewed by The Joint Commission from 2012 through the second quarter of 2014.
1. Unintended retention of a foreign object events
- 2012 — 115 events reported to The Joint Commission
- 2013 — 102
- 2014 — 57
2. Fall-related events
- 2012 — 76
- 2013 — 82
- 2014 — 44
3. Suicide events
- 2012 — 85
- 2013 — 90
- 2014 — 39
4. Wrong patient, wrong site, wrong procedure events
- 2012 — 109
- 2013 — 109
- 2014 — 35
5. Delay in treatment events
- 2012 — 107
- 2013 — 113
- 2014 — 34
6. Criminal events (assault, rape, homicide)
- 2012 — 43
- 2013 — 52
- 2014 — 29
7. Operation/post-operation complication events
- 2012 — 83
- 2013 — 77
- 2014 — 27
8. Perinatal events
- 2012 — 36
- 2013 — 35
- 2014 — 17
9. Medication error events
- 2012 — 42
- 2013 — 38
- 2014 — 12
10. Fire-related events
- 2012 — 15
- 2013 — 9
- 2014 — 7
*Editor's note: The data in The Joint Commission's report is not an epidemiological data set; the reporting of most sentinel events to The Joint Commission is voluntary and represents only a small portion of actual events.