Never events

Never events are the "kind of mistake [i.e., medical error] that should never happen" in the field of medical treatment. According to the Leapfrog Group never events are defined as "adverse events that are serious, largely preventable, and of concern to both the public and health care providers for the purpose of public accountability."

A 2012 study reported there may be as many as 1,500 instances of one never event, the retained foreign object, per year in the United States. The same study suggests an estimated total number of surgical mistakes at just over 4,000 per year in the United States; however, these statistics are extrapolations from small samples rather than actual event counts.

A list of events was compiled by the National Quality Forum and updated in 2012. The NQF’s report recommends a national state-based event reporting system to improve the quality of patient care.

As of 2006^[update], a little more than half of U.S. states have some version of a reporting system for Never events.

The National Patient Safety Agency produced a list of 8 core never events in March 2009:

NHS England produced a report on 148 reported never events in the period from April to September 2013 highlighting particular hospitals with more than one such event.

The Leapfrog Group suggested four actions to be taken following a never event:

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