Table 5.

Example of five qualitative levels for characterizing the potential severity of patient harm.

Severity of harm	Description
Minor	Minor patient injury that does not require any medical treatment.
Moderate	Potential for serious patient injury that requires clinical management and/or monitoring.
Serious	Severe pain and/or potential for severe patient injury that requires a medical procedure and risk of complication.
Critical	Severe patient injury that is life threatening.
Fatal	Sudden patient death.