Table 3

 Twelve different definitions and three functional meanings found for “near miss” and related terms

OrganisationTerms and definitionsScenario
ABCD
Bold text  =  keywords within the definition upon which the scenario assignment decisions were made.
Underlined text  =  keywords separately defined by the same organisation (the meaning of these were taken into account in the scenario assignment process).
Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC)“Near miss”:××√√
An incident that did not cause harm.
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM)“Near miss”:××√√
Any process variation which did not affect the outcome, but for which a recurrence carries a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome.
British Medical Association (BMA)“Near miss”:××√√
A situation in which an event or omission, or sequence of events or omissions, could have resulted in injury to a patient if allowed to progress further or in different circumstances.
Health Canada“Near miss”:××√√
An event or situation that could have resulted in an accident, injury or illness, but did not, either by chance or through timely intervention.
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)“Near miss”:××√√
A situation in which the patient had a narrow escape from a serious complication.
UK Department of Health“Near miss”:××√√
A situation in which an event or omission, or a sequence of events or omissions, arising during clinical care fails to develop further, whether or not as a result of compensating action, thus preventing injury to a patient.
Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN)“Potential adverse drug event”:××√√
An incident with potential for injury related to a drug.
Health Canada“Potential adverse drug event”:××√√
An incident in which an error was made but no harm occurred.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)“Potential adverse drug event”:××√√
Occurrence of a medication error that could result in an adverse drug event but does not because of intervention or chance.
Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN)“Potential adverse event”:××√√
An error of medical management that does not result in injury (“near misses”).
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)“Potential adverse drug event”:××√×
A medication error or other drug-related mishap that reached the patient, but happened not to produce harm.
American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP)“Potential error”:×××√
A mistake in prescribing, dispensing, or planned medication administration that is detected and corrected through intervention (by another health care provider or patient) before actual medication administration.