On August 14, 2019 The Joint Commission (TJC) released sentinel event statistics for the first half of 2019, which included 426 events. 83% of the events were voluntarily self-reported by an accredited or certified organization. The five most frequently reported sentinel events were:
- Unintended retention of a foreign body part – 60
- Wrong-site surgery – 29
- Fall – 25
- Suicide (inpatient) – 21
- Suicide (offsite) – 21
TJC noted that less than 2% of all sentinel events are reported and that since 2005 58.4 percent have been self-reported. TJC also provided several new categories of sentinel events:
- Anesthesia-related events
- Care management events
- Criminal events
- Environmental events
- Product or device events
- Protection events
- Suicide – emergency department
- Suicide – inpatient
- Suicide – offsite within 72 hours
- Surgical or invasive procedure events
Additional information may be found here. Norton Rose Fulbright professionals are available to provide additional information regarding compliance with The Joint Commission accreditation requirements.
