SynthesisQuality & safety in health care2008
The incidence and nature of in-hospital adverse events: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Quality & safety in health care, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 4 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 557 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effects of Checklists in Surgical Care - a Study on Morbidity, Mortality and Data Quality
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist Implementation and Its Impact in Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality in an Academic Medical Center in Chile
Determining the Ease of Utilizing 3D Printed Models to Aide in Isolated Mandibular Fracture Repair
Proficiency Based Progression Training Versus Traditional Training During a Robotic Emergency Conversion Due to a Vessel Injury in a Simulated Setting: a Prospective, Randomized, Multicenter Clinical Trial: The T-REC Trial
Who cites it
557 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Objective technical skills assessment in laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a systematic review of manual, kinematic, and AI-based tools.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Pooled it
- Vitrectomy After Cataract Surgery as a Patient Safety Indicator: A Rapid Review to Support Benchmarking Within the Austrian Inpatient Quality Indicators Framework.Journal of patient safety · 2026Pooled it
- The association between frailty and hospital-related adverse events in older hospitalised patients: a systematic literature review.European geriatric medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Beyond compliance: examining the completeness and determinants of WHO surgical safety checklist - a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Identifying the data elements and functionalities of clinical decision support systems to administer medication for neonates and pediatrics: a systematic literature review.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2023Pooled it
- Incidence and characteristics of adverse events in paediatric inpatient care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ quality & safety · 2023Pooled it
- Variation in detected adverse events using trigger tools: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Reducing medication errors for adults in hospital settings.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- How safe is prehospital care? A systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2021Pooled it
- Reducing preventable adverse events in obstetrics by improving interprofessional communication skills - Results of an intervention study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Trial
- Scaling up Quality Improvement for Surgical Teams (QIST)-avoiding surgical site infection and anaemia at the time of surgery: a cluster randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of quality improvement collaboratives to introduce change in the NHS.Implementation science : IS · 2022Trial
- Adverse drug events during transitions of care : Randomized clinical trial of medication reconciliation at hospital admission.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2022Trial
- Moral distress: sometimes, there is no fix.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Review
- Interdisciplinary insights on intubation checklist use in the ICU: a qualitative study.ATS scholar · 2026Article
- Prognostic Value of Traditional and Optimised Vital Sign Thresholds for Risk of Serious Adverse Events in Continuously Monitored Hospitalised Patients.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Quality in Surgery: Concepts, Measurement, Advances and Strategies for Improvement.World journal of surgery · 2026Review
- Strengthening patient safety competencies among physician interns through a structured quality and safety course.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care professionals towards pharmacovigilance in Georgia.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The association between the degree of frailty and the risk of hospital related adverse events in older acutely admitted patients.Age and ageing · 2026Observational
497 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAdverse events in hospitals constitute a serious problem with grave consequences. Many studies have been conducted to gain an insight into this problem, but a general overview of the data is lacking. We performed a systematic review of the literature on in-hospital adverse events.
methodsA formal search of Embase, Cochrane and Medline was performed. Studies were reviewed independently for methodology, inclusion and exclusion criteria and endpoints. Primary endpoints were incidence of in-hospital adverse events and percentage of preventability. Secondary endpoints were adverse event outcome and subdivision by provider of care, location and type of event.
resultsEight studies including a total of 74 485 patient records were selected. The median overall incidence of in-hospital adverse events was 9.2%, with a median percentage of preventability of 43.5%. More than half (56.3%) of patients experienced no or minor disability, whereas 7.4% of events were lethal. Operation- (39.6%) and medication-related (15.1%) events constituted the majority. We present a summary of evidence-based interventions aimed at these categories of events.
conclusionsAdverse events during hospital admission affect nearly one out of 10 patients. A substantial part of these events are preventable. Since a large proportion of the in-hospital events are operation- or drug-related, interventions aimed at preventing these events have the potential to make a substantial difference.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.