The safety of outpatient health care: Review of electronic health records (7 May 2024)

Summary

Although most healthcare is delivered in outpatient settings, knowledge about outpatient adverse events (AEs) and harm remains limited. The SafeCare Study aimed to assess the frequency of adverse events in both inpatients and outpatients across several healthcare systems in Massachusetts, USA. This paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine presents the results of the SafeCare Study which relate to adverse events in outpatients. The results showed that outpatient harm was relatively common and often serious. Adverse medication events were most frequent adverse event and rates of harm were higher among older adults.

Content

Key findings

• 7% of patients experienced at least one adverse event 
• 17.4% of adverse events identified were considered serious in nature. 2.1% were life-threatening and none were fatal
• 10.4% of Black or African American patients and 13.1% of patients over the age of 85 experienced an adverse event
• 64% of adverse events identified were medication-related
• Variation in adverse event rates across the 11 study sites ranged from 1.8% to 23.6% of patients who received care
• The study is likely to have undercounted the true number of adverse events