Trend Analysis of Patient Safety Incidents and Their Associated Factors in Korea Using National Patient Safety Report Data (2017~2019)

This study analyzed trends in patient safety incidents (PSIs) and the factors associated with the PSIs by analyzing 2017–2019 Patient Safety Report data in Korea. We extracted 2940 records in 2017, 5889 in 2018, and 7386 in 2019, from hospitals with more than 200 beds, and used all 16,215 cases for analysis. SPSS 25.0 was used for a multi-nominal logistic regression analysis. The PSI trend analysis, the standardized Jonckheere–Terpstra test was significant. On analyzing the probability of adverse events based on near misses, the significant variables were patient age, the season when PSIs occurred, incident reporter, hospital size, the location of PSIs, the type of PSIs, and medical department. Additionally, the factors that were likely to precipitate sentinel events based on near misses were patient sex, patient age, incident reporter, the type of PSIs, and medical department. To prevent sentinel events in PSIs, female and older patients are required to pay close attention. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a patient safety reporting system in which not only all medical personnel, but also patients, generally, can actively participate in patient safety activities and report voluntarily.