While adverse events (AE) in pediatric emergency departments are rare, the majority are considered preventable. This study reports on the proportion of pediatric patients experiencing an AE within 21 days of an emergency department visit, whether the AE may have been preventable, and the type of AE (e.g., management, diagnostic). Results show 3% of children experienced at least one AE, most of which were preventable.

This article describes emergency department (ED)-related adverse events in pediatric patients presenting to the ED at a pediatric hospital in Canada over a one-year period.  Among 1,319 patients at 3-months follow-up, 33 patients (2.5%) reported an adverse event related to their ED care.  The majority of these events (88%) were preventable. Most of the events involved diagnostic (45.5%) or management issues (51.5%) and resulted in symptoms lasting more than one day (72.7%).

This qualitative systematic literature review identifies and summarizes evidence for the use of potassium-containing products in hospitals. Results include examination of current recommendations and data that address those consensus-driven guidelines. Discussion shares the limitations of the literature about medication safety practices and calls for greater attention to improving the evidence base behind patient safety practices in general. The authors conclude that inadequate evidence exists to support specific best practices for the proper handling of potassium products.

Using methodology originally developed for the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the authors reviewed more than 4000 hospitalizations from 20 Canadian hospitals in order to estimate the degree of iatrogenic harm suffered by patients.  Overall, 7.5% of patients suffered at least one adverse event, of which more than one-third were felt to be preventable.  These data are similar to prior studies conducted in the United States and Australia, but (as with prior studies) reviewer agreement on the presence and preventability of errors was only moderate.