Joint Commission Releases 2015 Sentinel Event Stats

Last week, The Joint Commission released its sentinel event statistics from 2015. Of the 936 sentinel events reported last year, the most common were unintended retention of a foreign body (116), wrong-site/wrong-side/wrong procedure surgery (111), falls (95), and suicides (95).

The most common root causes of sentinel events last year were human factors (e.g., staff supervision issues) leadership (e.g., organizational planning), and communication with either administration or patients.

The Joint Commission has been compiling sentinel event data since 2004. Of the 9,884 patient cases reported, more than 55% of patients died due to a sentinel event and 8.7% suffered from permanent loss of function.

View the full chart here.