The Joint Commission releases sentinel event data for CY 2022

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission, on April 4, released its Sentinel Event Data 2022 Annual Review, which covered serious adverse events from January 1 through December 31, 2022.

There were 1,441 sentinel events reported in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021, and a 78% increase over 2020, with COVID-19 continuing to present challenges throughout 2022.

The top 10 leading reviewed sentinel event types were:

• Falls (42%)
• Delay in treatment (6%)
• Unintended retention of foreign objects (6%)
• Wrong surgery, which includes wrong site, wrong procedure, wrong patient, and wrong implant (6%)
• Suicide (5%)
• Assault/rape/sexual assault/homicide (4%)
• Fire/burns (3%)
• Perinatal event (2%)
• Self-harm (2%)
• Medication management (2%).

Failures in communication, teamwork, and consistently following policies were the leading causes for sentinel events, most of which occurred in hospitals (88%).

A total of 20% of sentinel events were linked to patient deaths, 44% with severe temporary harm, and 13% with unexpected additional care and extended stay.