| Criterion | n (%) | Agreement, κ | p Value* | Odds ratio (95% CI)* | |
| (1) | Unplanned admission related to previous healthcare management | 153 (15.2) | 0.64 | 0.4 | 1.4 (0.7 to 3.0) |
| (2) | Hospital-incurred patient injury, (eg fall, burn, pressure ulcer) | 58 (5.8) | 0.69 | 0.001 | 3.9 (1.7 to 8.8) |
| (3) | Other patient complications (eg DVT, MI, CVA, PE**) | 58 (5.8) | 0.56 | <0.001 | 6.9 (3.0 to 15.9) |
| (4) | Hospital-acquired infection/sepsis | 68 (6.8) | 0.59 | <0.001 | 21.7 (10.7 to 44.7) |
| (5) | Cardiac/respiratory arrest, low Apgar score | 7 (0.7) | 0.66 | 0.01 | 18.5 (2 to 179) |
| (6) | Adverse drug reaction | 18 (1.8) | 0.49 | 0.003 | 6.5 (1.9 to 22.2) |
| (7) | Unplanned transfer from general care to intensive care | 13 (1.3) | 0.66 | 0.04 | 10.3 (1.05 to 101) |
| (8) | Unplanned transfer to another acute care hospital | 2 (0.2) | NA | 0.9 | 0 (NA) |
| (9) | Unplanned return to the operating theatre | 4 (0.4) | NA | 0.6 | 2.0 (0.1 to 19) |
| (10) | Unplanned removal, injury or repair of organ during surgery | 5 (0.5) | 0.66 | <0.001 | 88 (6.8 to 114) |
| (11) | Development of neurological deficit not present on admission | 4 (0.4) | NA | 0.8 | 1.4 (0.07 to 28.0) |
| (12) | Inappropriate discharge | 25 (2.5) | 0.55 | 0.004 | 50 (3.4 to 736) |
| (13) | Unexpected death | 33 (3.3) | 0.66 | 0.7 | 1.3 (0.4 to 4.1) |
| (14) | Injury related to abortion or delivery | 0 (0.0) | NA | NA | NA |
| (15) | Dissatisfaction with care documented in medical record | 21 (2.1) | 0.80 | 0.1 | 2.9 (0.7 to 12.0) |
| (16) | Documentation or correspondence indicating litigation | 0 (0.0) | NA | NA | NA |
| (17) | Any other undesirable outcomes not covered above | 116 (11.6) | 0.54 | <0.001 | 5.3 (2.7 to 10.3) |
| (18) | Unplanned readmission related to the care provided in the index admission | 99 (9.8) | 0.78 | 0.009 | 2.7 (1.3 to 5.8) |
| Admissions with at least one positive criterion | 448 (44.5) | 0.68 |
CVA, cerebral vascular accident; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; MI, myocardial infraction; PE, pulmonary embolism.
A confidence score of ⩾4 was used for causal link.
NA, based on 107 admissions to check the inter-rater reliability, when no criterion was recorded positive, the kappa could not be calculated.
*p Value and odds ratio is for multivariate logistic regression.