Tackling Surgery’s Hidden Problem: Adverse Events Reporting

Over 313 million surgeries take place each year globally, and 4.2 million people die as a result of postoperative complications–amounting to 7.7% of all deaths worldwide. Finding the root cause of these complications (and ultimately designing solutions) requires analyzing what transpired in the surgery. Often, however, a crucial piece of information is missing from the picture.

Adverse Events Reporting

In spite of the connection between adverse events and higher risk for negative outcomes, adverse events reporting remains disturbingly low.

This White Paper Explains:

• The perceptions (and pitfalls) of adverse events reporting
• Cultural, systematic, and technological barriers
• The real financial impact on healthcare providers
• Potential solutions to foster a better reporting culture

Medical chart review and data collection can improve individual care management but fail to address device and procedural issues that can impact outcomes and result in harm. All-cause harm events are associated with a high likelihood of readmissions within 30 days, meaning hospitals take a serious hit in receiving payment. Intraoperative adverse events also correlate to a significant increase in total hospitalization charges.

Solutions to all-cause harm reporting require a sociotechnical approach, addressing culture, process, technology, and how they connect. Not reporting (or under-reporting) events leaves little opportunity for institutional learning and causes a serious information gap that could save a patient’s life.

Solutions

Reporting adverse events must be made easier. Being able to report adverse events in real-time from the OR, with simple tools streamlined into the natural workflow, will make it easier to identify why and how all-cause harm events occur in the surgical environment and to create solutions.