The New England Journal of MedicineThe Safety of Inpatient Health Care

Authors found that in 23.6% of a random sample of 2,809 admissions, there were at least one adverse event. 316 of the 978 adverse events were classified as having a significant or higher severity level, and 222 were deemed to be preventable. In 6.8% of all admissions, an adverse event that could have been avoided happened, and in 1% of those cases, the incident had a serious or higher severity rating. Seven people passed away, one of which was thought to be avoidable. The most frequent adverse events (representing 39.0% of all occurrences) were adverse medication events, which were followed by surgical or other procedural events (30.4%), patient-care events (15.0%), and infections related to medical care (11.9%).