Risk Assessment of Surgical Procedures in a Referral Hospital

Background: Adverse Events (AEs) due to failure in healthcare procedures are common. These procedures are often evaluated independently. The objectives of this study are to investigate the nature of the failures in healthcare procedures of the surgical patients, assessing the frequency of these failures and preventability, and exploring their consequences, underlying causes, and prevention strategies in a referral hospital in the center of Iran. Materials and Methods: This study is a prospective quantitative and qualitative research. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) meetings have been conducted to understand potential failures, their consequences, causes, and prevention strategies. Afterwards, the frequencies of these concepts have been determined separately in predefined subcategories in each step of the process. Results: The first phase of the patient care process was the most risk-prone phase. Temporary or permanent disability at the time of discharge (final impacts), inflammation/infection (injuries), the rule-based behavior associated with coordination (causes), information and communication, preventability more than 50 were the most frequent failures and had achieved the highest score. Conclusion: Failures of healthcare processes are preventable to a high degree, although patients injure frequently. Interventions to mitigate these failures will enhance the reliability of surgical procedures.