Type, severity and system response for 187 adverse events related to care received in the paediatric emergency department (ED)
| n (%) | |
| Adverse events related to care provided by: | |
| ED-specific services | 167 (89.3) |
| Subspecialist services | 12 (6.4) |
| Both ED and subspecialist services | 8 (4.3) |
| Type of adverse events* | |
| Management issues | 98 (52.4) |
| Diagnostic issues | 36 (19.3) |
| Medication adverse events | 30 (16.0) |
| Suboptimal follow-up | 25 (13.4) |
| Procedural complications | 23 (12.3) |
| Unsafe disposition decision | 8 (4.3) |
| Severity of adverse events | |
| ≤1 day of symptoms | 77 (41.2) |
| >1 day of symptoms | 102 (54.5) |
| Abnormality on laboratory testing | 3 (1.6) |
| Non-permanent disability | 5 (2.7) |
| Permanent disability | 0 (0.0) |
| Death | 0 (0.0) |
| System response required for adverse events* | |
| No treatment (symptoms only) | 33 (17.6) |
| Visit to laboratory | 2 (1.1) |
| Visit to physician’s office | 48 (25.7) |
| Visit to ED | 79 (42.2) |
| Admission to hospital | 24 (12.8) |
| Required medical intervention | 91 (48.7) |
| Required surgical intervention | 7 (3.7) |
| Transfer to critical care | 3 (1.6) |
| Death | 0 (0.0) |
*Because adverse events may be of more than one type or require more than one system response, total may exceed 100%.