Table 3

Frequency of incidents relating to each WHO incident category

Incident typeFrequency (%)
Clinical process/procedure (eg, incorrect diagnosis, inadequate management of care, wrong patient)207 (33)
Medication intravenous fluids132 (21)
(Patient defined) health problem—related to the reason they were in hospital no additional details given*76 (12)
Healthcare-associated infection52 (8)
Clinical administration (eg, handover, discharge, patient identification)35 (6)
(Patient defined) problem during/after care process—indicated that something had gone wrong*34 (5)
Patient accident (eg, fall in shower)22 (3)
Medical device/equipment (eg, lack of availability, unclean)19 (3)
Resources/organisational management13 (2)
(Patient defined) readmission to hospital–indicated that something had gone wrong*10 (2)
Documentation (eg, delayed receipt of records, unavailable, incorrect)9 (1)
(Patient defined) complication*9 (1)
Nutrition (eg, storage or supply of nutrition, given to wrong patient or at wrong time)7 (1)
Infrastructure/buildings/fixtures4 (1)
Blood/blood products2 (<1)
Oxygen/gas/vapour1 (<1)
(Patient defined) costs associated with care*1 (<1)
Total633 (100)
  • *Additional categories derived in the analysis as proposed by the research team.