The Joint Commission has reviewed a total of 394 sentinel events so far in 2014. Here are the top 10 sentinel events the organization has reviewed between January and June 2014, based on the number of occurrences:
1. Unintended retention of a foreign body — 57
2. “Other” unanticipated event — 53
3. Fall — 44
4. Suicide — 39
5. Wrong-patient, wrong-site, wrong-procedure — 35
6. Delay in treatment — 34
7. Criminal event — 29
8. Op/postop complication — 27
9. Perinatal death/injury — 17
10. Medication error — 12
While root causes of sentinel events are unchanged from the same data collection period in 2013, the ranking for last 2013 first and second quarter sentinel event data looks slightly different:
1. Wrong-patient, wrong-site, wrong-procedure — 60
2. Unintended retention of a foreign body — 56
3. Delay in treatment — 56
4. Fall — 48
5. “Other” unanticipated event (includes unexpected additional care/extended care, and psychological impact) — 40
6. Op/postop complication — 37
7. Suicide — 35
8. Criminal event — 26
9. Medication error — 20
10. Perinatal death/injury — 15
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