TABLE 2.
Types and frequencies of Patient Safety Incidents in selected critical care units of eThekwini district, KwaZulu-Natal.
| Variable | n | % |
|---|---|---|
| Death | ||
| Unnatural death (suicide, homicide, maternal, neonatal, procedure-related) | 64 | 29 |
| Death associated with a nosocomial infection (e.g. VAP) | 58 | 26 |
| Procedure-related events | ||
| Surgery on wrong body part | 11 | 5 |
| Surgery on wrong patient | 4 | 2 |
| Wrong surgical procedure performed on patient | 8 | 4 |
| Unplanned return to operating room on admission | 18 | 8 |
| Patient care-related events | ||
| Transfer from general care unit to a higher level, for example, high care or ICU | 100 | 45 |
| Length of stay for more than 10 days | 110 | 49 |
| Unplanned second presentation to department within 48 hours for the same condition | 49 | 22 |
| Return to emergency department or outpatients department for complication related to the last hospital admission | 42 | 19 |
| Disability associated with labour-related event | 9 | 4 |
| Medication-related events | ||
| Allergic reaction | 32 | 14 |
| Drug interaction | 43 | 19 |
| Blood product-related events | ||
| Blood transfusion reaction (fever, jaundice, urticaria, etc.) | 41 | 18 |
| Incorrect blood administered (blood to wrong patient) | 10 | 5 |
| Hospital-related events | ||
| Multi-drug resistant organism (organism resistant to three or more antibiotics) | 103 | 45 |
| Intravenous site inflammation/catheter-related infections | 106 | 47 |
| Post-operative wound infection | 55 | 47 |
| Hospital-incurred patient incident, such as fall | 35 | 16 |
| Development of pressure sores | 79 | 35 |
| Patient abscondment | 22 | 10 |
| Infant discharged to wrong person, or missing infant | 5 | 2 |
| Patient with needle-stick injury | 13 | 6 |
| Total | 1017 | - |
VAP, ventilator-associated pneumonias; ICU, Intensive care unit.