This systematic review examined surgical never events following the implementation of the Universal Protocol in 2004. Incidence estimates for retained surgical items and wrong-site surgery varied across studies, with median event rates approximately 1 per 10,000 and 1 per 100,000 procedures, respectively. There were many causes and contributing factors to these errors, but root cause analyses commonly called for better communication.

The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) was developed to monitor and enhance the quality of surgical care. This narrative review discusses how NSQIP has been implemented and utilized to support patient safety efforts, such as compiling and analyzing data about surgical complications to determine areas for improvement.