Nova Scotia report on medical errors, accidents released

The latest batch of Serious Reportable Events was posted on Thursday by Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness. 

The list outlines severe accidents and medical errors at provincial facilities since 2014. It's purposely short on detail to protect patient privacy. 

There's been a total of 132 serious incidents and errors over the past 18 months. 

The vast majority — 83 per cent — fall into six categories: 

• Suicides or suicide attempts resulting in death or serious disability (32 cases) 
• Serious pressure ulcers, which may include bedsores exposing underlying fat, muscle, tendon or bone (30 cases)
• Patient deaths from falls (15 cases)
• Death or serious disability from uncategorized non-surgical care (12 cases) 
• Foreign objects left inside patients during surgery (11 cases)
• Death or serious injury following a diagnosis or treatment (10 cases) 

Most events occurred in hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities run by the Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK. 

But a provincial spokesperson says suicide statistics include outpatients living in the community and receiving mental health care from hospital clinicians. 

The province tracks 35 categories of possible errors, but only 13 types have been recorded so far. A spokesperson says the province modelled its reporting system on other jurisdictions, not wanting to miss any foreseeable incident type. 

The Nova Scotia Health Authority won't reveal where the errors and accidents occur, again for patient privacy reasons.

"We can't release that information due to the small numbers. When it breaks down across facility, it becomes identifiable," said spokesperson Everton McLean.

The department started to post medical mistakes online in 2014.