How Safe Are Our Pediatric Emergency Departments?

Adverse Drug Event Clinical Trial

Official title: How Safe Are Our Pediatric Emergency Departments? A National Prospective Cohort Study

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Patient safety is an internationally recognized health care priority. Canadian data suggests that about 8% of adults admitted to hospital experience unintended harm (or 'adverse events') from the health care provided during their hospital stay. On a national level, this represents almost 25,000 preventable deaths among hospitalized adults each year. The emergency department is recognized as a high-risk environment for adverse events but most patient safety research is not specific to the emergency department. As well, the vast majority of people treated in the emergency department are sent home after their visit; yet safety research focuses primarily on people who are admitted to hospital. Finally, although children have also been identified as particularly high risk for suffering adverse events, very little research has been done on how often these events occur among children who visit the emergency department. Our study will address this gap in our knowledge about patient safety and provide important information on the frequency, severity and preventability of adverse events occurring among children in the emergency department. This information will help us to improve the safety of emergency department care for all Canadian children.

Clinical Trial Description

n/a

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Adverse Drug Event
• Adverse Effects
• Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
• Emergencies

• NCT number: NCT02162147
• Study type: Observational
• Source: Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: November 2014
• Completion date: March 2017