AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network Offers Primer on Efforts to Prevent “Never Events”

Health care organizations are under increasing pressure to eliminate "never events," which are medical errors such as wrong-site surgery that should never occur. Though they rarely occur, these 29 events may indicate fundamental safety problems within a health care organization. AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) offers a primer that describes these events, which of them are most commonly reported, and current national efforts to encourage health care organizations to report, analyze, and disclose such errors in order to improve quality. Select to access the full patient safety primer, titled "Never Events."