Near-miss events detected using the emergency department trigger tool (March 2023)

Summary

Near misses include conditions with potential for harm, intercepted medical errors, and events requiring monitoring or intervention to prevent harm. Little is reported on near misses or their importance for quality and safety in the emergency department (ED). This is a secondary evaluation of data from a retrospective study of the ED Trigger Tool (EDTT) at an urban, academic ED. It was published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

Authors conclude that near-miss events are relatively common (22.7% of their sample, 19.3% in the population) and are associated with an increased risk for an adverse event. Most events were patient care related (77%) involving delays due to crowding and ED boarding followed by medication administration errors. The EDTT is a high-yield approach for detecting important near misses and latent system deficiencies that impact patient safety.