Table 1.
Elements of Taxonomy for Ambulatory Adverse Events
| Element | Classification |
|---|---|
| Event type* | AE: an injury, with varying possible levels of harm, which results either from medical management or patient self-management |
| PotAE: an unsafe state, not currently an AE, but likely to lead to an AE if it persists without intervention | |
| Time-frame* | Incident: new to the patient |
| Prevalent: ongoing in the patients’ life | |
| Trigger* | “Out-of-range” ATSM response |
| Patient requested a callback | |
| Nurse care manager elicitation | |
| None | |
| Unable to determine | |
| Preventability* | Preventable: could have been avoided, probably a result of an error or system design flaw, or could have been avoided with a patient action that is reasonable to expect |
| Ameliorable: (AEs only) severity could have been substantially reduced with different actions or procedures (on the part of patient, provider, or system) | |
| Nonpreventable, nonameliorable | |
| Unable to determine | |
| Primary provider awareness* | Aware in real time or prior to the study nurse becoming aware |
| Unable to determine | |
| Unaware | |
| Description* | Hyperglycemia |
| Hypoglycemia | |
| Glucose monitoring | |
| Medication problem | |
| Other physical complaint/symptom | |
| Other | |
| Unknown | |
| Self-management domain* | Glucose monitoring |
| Medications | |
| Foot care | |
| Screening (non-receipt) | |
| Diet | |
| Exercise | |
| Diagnosis (missed or incorrect) | |
| Other | |
| Unable to determine | |
| Harm† | Not applicable—PotAE without harm |
| Laboratory abnormalities only | |
| 1 day of symptoms | |
| Several days of symptoms | |
| Nonpermanent disability (including hospitalization) | |
| Permanent disability | |
| Death | |
| Health care utilization‡ | Nurse–patient telephone contact |
| Nurse–pharmacy telephone contact | |
| Nurse–PMD telephone contact | |
| Additional laboratory monitoring | |
| Nurse in-person visit | |
| Primary care office visit/ urgent care visit | |
| Specialist physician visit | |
| Emergency visit | |
| Hospitalization | |
| 911 (emergency medical services) | |
| Unknown | |
| None |
AE = adverse event, PotAE = potential adverse event
*Coded with 1 best response
†Coded as 1 response, for most severe harm
‡Coded as all responses that apply