Chapter 8 - Learning from Adverse Events: Classification Systems

Summary

Healthcare today is a field that is complex, highly specialized, and technical. When errors occur, especially those that could compromise patient safety, it is critical to record those incidents and the contributing factors that surround the events to facilitate processes to prevent those events from reoccurring. In recording these incidents, it is important to devise a classification system, a taxonomy, which will enable healthcare providers to report, analyze, and classify adverse events. The World Health Organization (WHO) created a taxonomy for adverse events categorizing its contributing factors, patient characteristics, and outcomes of that specific event, also classifying mitigating and preventative actions for that event. The Joint Commission (JC) and the Healthcare Performance Improvement (HPI) have taxonomies used by healthcare institutions across the United States today. It would be ideal to have a classification system that would be completely standardized and have patient safety data exchanged easily across systems. A system such as this would facilitate data entry, analysis, and strategy formation for prevention and mitigation. However, until healthcare is able to achieve this system, it is critical that providers take steps to educate each other about best practices to ensure patients receive the best quality and safest care.