title: Frequency and nature of reported incidents during Emergency Department care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to examine reported incidents affecting Emergency Department (ED) episodes of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective audit of ED patients was carried out in an urban district hospital in Melbourne, Australia from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008. The main outcome measure was presence or absence of reported patient-related incident(s) during ED care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 984 patient-related incidents (n=984) during 2008.The most common incidents were related to patient behaviour (66.4%), patient management (10.1%) and medications (6.5%). Patients whose ED care involved reported incident(s) were older, had higher triage categories, longer length of ED stay and were more likely to need hospital admission or leave at their own risk. Eighteen per cent of reported incidents occurred in patients aged 65&emsp14;years and over. Incidents affecting older patients were more likely to be related to breach of skin integrity, patient management, diagnosis and patient identification, and less likely to involve patient behaviour.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reported incident(s) occurred in 0.47% of ED episodes of care. Differences in personal and clinical characteristics of patients whose ED care involved reported incident(s) highlights the need for better understanding of incidents occurring in the ED in order to improve systems for high-risk patients.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, Victoria, Australia. julie.considine@deakin.edu.au
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Considine
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stergiou
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D017050:Episode of Care; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008330:Management Audit; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology