Enhancing communication and technology for reporting & addressing.Voluntary reporting will not only improve operations in the hospital, but it will bring to light similar situations for you and your colleagues.Īdditional elements to consider for those trying to mitigate sentinel events include: Adhere to The Joint Commission’s reporting and root-cause analysis requirements, which are detailed in the organization’s accreditation manual.Įven though one may feel naturally inclined to want to downplay or keep quiet on the event in question, in the long-term, our legal nurse consultants in Michigan strongly encourage you to rectify the situation directly and with honesty.Sentinel events claim many victims, so a robust support system of services is needed. Provide unwavering support for patients, family members, and staff.Disclose situationally relevant information to the patient or to their designated caregiver ASAP.You are able to take photos of the scene of the sentinel event to aid in the downstream analysis. Preserve anything that might be helpful in the analysis process, which includes equipment, medication, and much more.Secure the situation- First things first, ensure the immediate safety and wellbeing of anyone directly involved, including patients and staff.
Joint commission sentinel event how to#
If you happen to find yourself with a sentinel event in your hospital, The Joint Commission offers a 5-step process of how to proceed. It’s on hospitals to investigate and report on sentinel events, for the sake of their standard operating procedures and the health of future patients. Across the board, experts agree that almost all types of sentinel events are under-reported due to varying circumstances like lack of time, fear of punishment, and confusion about the severity of events that require notification. The majority, or 83% were voluntarily self-reported by an accredited or certified organization. Criminal events (i.e., assault, rape, homicide)īack in 2019, the Joint Commission reviewed a total of 844 sentinel events.Wrong patients, wrong site, or incorrect procedure events.Unintended retention of a foreign object events.Here is what the top 10 sentinel events include: The most commonly occurring sentinel events will include unintended retention of a foreign object, falls, and performing procedures on the wrong patient. They can happen anywhere along the healthcare continuum, in any setting, statistics report that 68% of them occur in general hospitals. Despite the fact that sentinel events have been on a downward trend in the last decade or so, they still remain a prevalent risk for hospitals. It should be known that sentinel events are identified under The Joint Commission (TJC) accreditation policies which help to aid in root cause analysis and assist in development of preventative measures. For today’s topic, let’s answer the question- What is a sentinel event? Sentinel Events And The Joint Commission Because these can get pretty intricate in terms of legality, it’s best when cases surrounding these scenarios are handled by our legal nurse consultants in Michigan. These events can be caused by a multitude of different factors, all relating to major mistakes and negligence on the part of the healthcare provider. A sentinel event denotes any unanticipated event in a healthcare setting that can result in death or serious physical or psychological injury to a patient, which is unrelated to the natural course of the patients’ illness.
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