. 2013 Dec 17;13:522. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-13-522

Table 2.

Definition of potential preventability, potential severity and actual clinical impact

	*Categories*	*Definition*
Potential preventability [14]	Definitely preventable	NS^a
	Probably preventable	NS^a
	Probably not preventable	NS^a
	Definitely not preventable	NS^a
Potential severity [15]	Minor	No injury, nor increased length of stay nor increased level of care.
	Moderate	Increased length of stay or increased level of care for 1 or 2 patients.
	Major	Permanent lessening of bodily functioning, disfigurement, surgical intervention required, increased length of stay for 3 or more patients, increased level of care for 3 or more patients.
	Catastrophic	Death or major permanent loss of function, suicide, rape, hemolytic transfusion reaction. Surgery/procedure on the wrong patient or wrong body part, infant abduction or infant discharge to the wrong family.
Actual clinical impact [16,17]	Preventable ADE^b	Injuries resulting from an error at any stage throughout the medication process.
	Near misses	Errors detected and intercepted before any harm is done.

^aNS: not specified; ^bADE: Adverse Drug Event.