Analysis of Surgical Adverse Events at a Major University Hospital in South Africa

Surgical ‘never events’ have serious adverse outcomes for patients. A never event can be defined as a serious, avoidable patient safety incident that would not occur if necessary preventative measures are implemented. The literature from South Africa on this topic is limited. This study aims to understand these never events in our setting and to develop a taxonomy to classify these events which facilitates the development of strategies to prevent and reduce the incidence and impact of surgical never events.

A retrospective review was undertaken over a 5-year period (December 2012–December 2017) at the Pietermaritzburg Metropolitan Surgical Service, South Africa. All morbidities and surgical never events recorded on the Hybrid Electronic Medical Registry (HEMR) were retrieved and analyzed.

A total of 20,432 patient admissions were captured on HEMR, and total of 7187 morbidities were recorded. Of these morbidities, 61.6% were in males and 38.3% in females. Patients admitted to general surgery accounted for 62.7% of the total, and trauma surgery and pediatric surgery accounted for 33.6% and 3.8%, respectively, of the total number of morbidities. Of these 7187 morbidities, a total of 79 never events were identified: 53 (67.1%) in males and 26 (32.9%) in females. Of all morbidities reported, 1.1% (79/7187) constituted a never event. The rate of never events for all admissions was (79 never events/20,432 admissions) or 0.39%. Among the 79 never events, general surgery patients experienced 47 (59.5%), trauma surgery 25 (31.6%), and pediatric surgery 7 (8.9%). In addition to these 79 never events, a total of 126 near misses were identified, of which 80 (63.5%) occurred in males.

Surgical morbidity is common and has a substantial impact of both the individual patient and society as a whole. Robust reporting mechanisms are needed to capture data, and these data must feed into evidence-based strategies to reduce the incidence and impact of this morbidity. Our systems ensure that our incidence of surgical never events is relatively low, but ongoing efforts must be made to ensure that we drive this level down even further.