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Hospital patients in Canada are safer than they are in Australia or the United Kingdom, but not as safe as they are in the U.S., according to the first large-scale study of adverse events in Canadian hospitals.

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, June 17, 2004

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Hospital patients in Canada are safer than they are in Australia or the United Kingdom, but not as safe as they are in the U.S., according to the first large-scale study of adverse events in Canadian hospitals.

The overall incidence rate of adverse events among Canadian inpatients is 7.5%, amounting to about 185,000 adverse events of nearly 2.5 million annual hospital admissions. Close to 70,000 of the events are potentially preventable, according to the study, which appears in the May 25 issue of the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal.

Most (64.4%) of the adverse events that occurred in 2000 caused no serious physical impairment or disability to the patient. However, 15 (5.2%) of the adverse events resulted in permanent disability, and 46 (15.9%) resulted in death.

Hospital chart reviews in various countries have revealed that 2.9%-16.6% of patients in acute care hospitals experience at least one adverse event. The rate of adverse events among inpatients in Australia, for example, is about 16.6%, while the rate in the U.K. is about 10.8%. The rate in the U.S. is between 2.9%--3.7%.

Patient safety is a growing issue in Canada, where numerous legal cases and media stories have highlighted the consequences of unintended adverse events. In 2002 the Canadian government budgeted $50 million over five years for the creation of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. The study is a jumping-off point for understanding how adverse events occur.

"Given the distribution of [adverse events] in this study, efforts to improve medication safety and surgery are likely to play an important role in improving patient safety in Canadian hospitals," the researchers write, adding that making healthcare safer "will require leadership to encourage the reporting of [adverse events], continued monitoring of the incidence of these events, the judicious application of new technologies and improved communication and coordination among caregivers."

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