Table 2.

Principal incident types, their frequency and the proportion of harmful reports

Incident type: definition	All, n	Harmful, n (%)	Moderate harm or worse, n (%)
Administration: transfer of patient information (discharge communication)	151	81 (54)	13 (9)
Referrals: referral of patients from one service to another	136	99 (73)	20 (15)
Medication: prescribing, dispensing, administration, or monitoring of medications	97	84 (87)	13 (13)
Care equipment: provision of adjuncts essential to safe care	62	58 (94)	4 (6)
Treatment and procedures: non-medication treatment decision making or execution	43	42 (98)	10 (23)
Diagnosis and assessment: process of assessing or diagnosing a patient	26	24 (92)	16 (62)
Investigations: process of investigating a patient’s condition	14	13 (93)	3 (21)
Communication: face-to-face or telephone, direct transfer of information relating to patient care	9	7 (78)	2 (22)
Other: for example issues around transportation	60	55 (92)	1 (2)
Total	598	463 (77)	82 (14)