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Monitoring adverse events in hospitals: how safe are hospitals for patients?

Baines, R.J. Monitoring adverse events in hospitals: how safe are hospitals for patients? Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit, 2018. 200 p. Proefschrift Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
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This thesis aims to assess trends in adverse event and preventable adverse event rates in hospitals in the Netherlands through the time period 2004 –2012. Furthermore patient safety for specific care processes and patient groups are assessed.
Patient safety has been high on the international agenda for several decades. This started with the publication of the ‘Harvard Medical Practice Study’ (HMPS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report ‘To err is human’. The HMPS was the first to publish rates of adverse events, assessed through retrospective patient record review. An adverse event is seen as an unintended injury that results in temporary or permanent disability, death or prolonged hospital stay, and is caused by healthcare management rather than the patients underlying disease process. Many countries have since then performed their own retrospective patient record review studies, providing a good sense of burden of (preventable) harm caused by health care. These results, amongst others, have increased the sense of urgency to improve patient safety in hospitals. In the Netherlands two large scaled programmes have taken place, the ‘Better Faster’ programme (2003-2008) in a selection of hospitals and ‘Prevent Harm, Work Safely’ (2008-2012) aimed at all Dutch hospitals.
Alongside these national programmes the level of patient safety in hospitals in the Netherlands has been monitored through performing three national adverse event studies assessing patient records from 2004, 2008 and 2011/2012. The large number of patient records reviewed, in total over 16,000 patient records, also enabled us to in depth study patients and processes at risk of experiencing adverse events and preventable adverse events.