Patient harm in Canadian hospitals? It does happen.
Text version of infographic
Hospitals are generally safe, but sometimes harmful events happen that affect patients. Many of these events are preventable.
How often does it happen? In 2023–2024, 1 in 17 hospital stays in Canada involved at least one harmful event (a total of 150,000 out of 2.5 million hospital stays).
What kinds of harmful events happen? There are 4 categories of harmful events. In 2023–2024, 47% were related to health care and medications (like bed sores or medication errors); 31% were related to infections (like surgical site infections); 18% were procedure-related (like bleeding after surgery); and 4% were patient accidents (like falls).
What can be done about this? We are collecting data on how often these events are happening, using a new hospital harm measure. And we are providing information on how these events can be prevented.
Note that all numbers mentioned here exclude data from Quebec and patients with mental health and substance use diagnoses.
Copyright 2024 Canadian Institute for Health Information, Healthcare Excellence Canada
How to cite:
Canadian Institute for Health Information. Patient harm in Canadian hospitals? It does happen.. Accessed October 22, 2024.
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