Cultivating a culture of safety

Communication and technology working together to reduce Never Events

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Quality’s Forum list of Never Events consists of 29 events grouped into 6 categories: surgical, product or device, patient protection, care management, environmental, radiologic, and criminal. Among the most common Never Events are unintended retention of a foreign body; wrong-patient, wrong-site, wrong-procedure; fall; operative/postoperative complication; and medication error.