Christine Jordan Sexton
Hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and ambulatory surgical centers reported 1,865 adverse incidents in the state during the third quarter of calendar year 2021, data posted Tuesday by the state Agency for Health Care Administration show.
A chart tracking the adverse incident data by outcome and provider type show 99 reported adverse incidents resulted in a patient’s death.
Assisted living facilities accounted for 45 of the reported adverse incidents resulting in death claims. Hospitals filed 40 adverse incident reports resulting in death during the three-month period.
The third quarter includes events from July, August and September when Florida hospitals were at the apex of inpatient hospitalizations and the number of COVID-19 infections in Florida nursing homes was growing.
Generally, adverse incidents involving transfers are events that cause a patient or resident to be moved within or outside the facility to a unit providing a more acute level of care. Transfers accounted for 39% of the 1,865 adverse incidents filed for the quarter.
There were 424 reports filed where the adverse incidents resulted in broken or fractured bones and joints. Breaks and fractures were second behind transfers in the number of adverse incidents filed for the quarter.
Health care providers are required to report adverse incidents to AHCA, which is charged with tracking trending and resolution programs in hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
The agency’s office of risk management publishes quarterly adverse incident reports by outcome and provider type. The data is not granular, though, and it doesn’t show the names of the facilities where the adverse incidents occurred.
There have been 5,976 adverse incidents reported to the state between Jan. 1 and Sept. 28, data show. That’s slightly more than the 5,907 adverse incidents that had been reported to the state in the first nine months of 2020.
In addition to providing quarterly reports, the office also provides an annual report showing trends in medical malpractice cases filed against hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. The 2020 report published earlier this year showed 27 medical malpractice claims had been filed against ambulatory surgical centers and 828 claims had been filed against hospitals in 2020 as of data reported to the state as of April 1.
