“Never events” are mistakes in healthcare that are so bad they should never happen. The National Quality Forum (NQF) refers to them as serious reportable events and lists 29 falling into seven categories. These are mistakes such as surgery performed on the wrong body part, that cause serious injury or death and are largely preventable. Although eliminating never events has been a focus since 2001, they still happen far too often. If you have suffered serious harm as a result of a never event, please talk to an experienced medical malpractice attorney right away.
Types of Never Events
The seven categories of never events are:
- Surgical/invasive procedure – mistakes such as surgery on the wrong part of the body or the wrong patient, wrong surgery or procedure. Another example is an object left in body
- Product/device – serious injury or death due to use of a contaminated product or device, improper use of a device, or intravascular air embolism
- Patient protection – releasing a patient who is unable to make decisions, serious injury or death due to elopement, suicide or suicide attempt while in a healthcare setting
- Care management – serious injury or death due to medication error, a fall or development of severe bed sores in healthcare setting or failure to follow up with patient on test results, or serious injury or death of mother or baby during labor and delivery in low risk pregnancy
- Environmental – serious injury or death associated with electric shock, burns, or the use of restraints or bedrails in a healthcare setting, or anytime a system meant to deliver oxygen, or another gas, has no gas, the wrong gas, or is contaminated with a toxin
- Radiological – serious injury or death due to metallic object in MRI area
- Criminal – abduction, sexual abuse, serious harm or death due to criminal assault on the grounds of a healthcare setting, or care provided by a person impersonating a healthcare professional
To learn more about your rights as a victim of medical malpractice, call Robbins Law, PC, at 800-772-5555 or contact us and schedule your free consultation.