Signalement des EIG par des enquêtes nationales

The Quality in Australian Health Care Study (QAHCS), published in the Journal in 1995, reported that 16.6% of hospital admissions were associated with an iatrogenic patient injury, termed an adverse event (AE). This compares with the rate of 3.7% for AEs in the Harvard Medical Practice Study (HMPS), and a rate of 17% in a more recent study with an alternative observational method of determining AEs. Fifty per cent of the AEs in the QAHCS were judged to have a high preventability score (4 or more on a scale of 1-6 of increasing likelihood of preventability). The disability caused by these adverse events ranged from temporary disability (fully resolved in one month) in 46.6% of AEs, to death in 4.9% of AEs. Although recording AEs emphasises only the "complications" of rather than the benefits derived from healthcare, AEs are of great significance to individual patients as well as to the whole healthcare system.