This annual report shares the results of Western Australia's sentinel event reporting program. Medication errors were the highest recorded sentinel event in the latest period. The data is placed in the context of the overall data collected over the last 5 years of the program.

The National Quality Forum has defined 29 never events—patient safety problems that should never occur, such as wrong-site surgery and patient falls. Since 2003, Minnesota hospitals have been required to report such incidents. The 2021 report summarizes information about 508 adverse events that were reported, representing a significant increase in the year covered. Earlier reports document a fairly consistent count of adverse events. The rise reflected here is likely due to demands on staffing and care processes associated with COVID-19. Pressure ulcers and fall-related injuries were the most common incidents documented. Reports from previous years are available.

Wrong site/wrong patent surgery is a persistent healthcare never event. This report examines National Health Service (NHS) reporting data to identify how ambulatory patient identification errors contribute to wrong patient care. The authors recommend that the NHS use human factors methods to design control processes to target and manage the risks in the outpatient environment such as lack of technology integration, shared waiting area space, and reliance on verbal communication at clinic.

Cataract surgery, one of the most common procedures in the United States, is vulnerable to wrong-site errors. This consensus report reviews the types of errors associated with cataract surgery and discusses evidence-based practices to reduce risks.

Wrong-site surgery is a never event, but still occurs at alarming rates. This report discusses risks related to wrong-site surgery, along with their root causes, and describes initiatives associated with a Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare project. The authors highlight improvements in scheduling surgeries, preoperative processes, operating room preparations, and organizational culture that substantially reduced wrong-site surgeries in the eight hospitals participating in the program. A prior AHRQ WebM&M commentary by Dr. Charles Vincent discussed a case of a wrong-site procedure.

This report resulted from a consensus program involving 28 national organizations that sought to outline goals for improving the US health care system and share examples of such efforts in patient safety and other identified areas.