Objective To analyze the incidence and preventability of adverse events related to health care in adult patients admitted to a Brazilian teaching hospital. Methods A retrospective cohort study, in which the incidence and preventability of adverse events related to health care were based on a two-stage retrospective review of 368 medical records (nurses and pharmacist review of medical records, followed by physicians review of triggered medical records) of adult patients whose hospitalizations occurred during 2015 in a high-complexity public teaching hospital located in Brazil. Data were collected from February 2018 to February 2019. Results A total of 266 adverse events were observed in 124 patients. The incidence of adverse events related to health care was 33.7% (95% CI 0.29–0.39), and the incidence density was 4.97 adverse events per 100 patient-days. Adverse events were responsible for 701 additional days of hospitalization, and the estimated length of additional hospital stay attributable to them was, on average, 6.8 days per event. The most common types of events were related to general care (60; 22.6%), medications (50; 18.8%), nosocomial infection (35; 13.2%), any other type (11; 4.1%), and diagnoses (2; 0.8%). Regarding the severity of adverse events, it was found that 168 (63.2%) were mild, 55 (20.7%) were moderate, and 43 (16.2%) were severe. In addition, it was estimated that 155 (58.3%) events were preventable. The length of a patient’s hospital stay was identified as a risk factor for the occurrence of adverse events (RR 1.20; 95% CI 1.04–1.39). Conclusions Through knowledge of the incidence, nature, severity, preventability, and risk factors for the occurrence of adverse events, it is possible to create the opportunities to prioritize the implementation of strategies for mitigating specific events based on reliable data and concrete information.

Objective: To highlight the scientific production related to the use of the retrospective chart review methods to assess the incidence and preventability of adverse events in hospitals. Method: An integrative review in the MEDLINE, LILACS, SCOPUS, Web of Science and EMBASE databases conducted in May 2019 with the following guiding question: What is known about the retrospective chart review methods to assess the incidence and preventability of adverse events in hospitals? Subsequently, the categorization, synthesis, and classification of the evidence levels of the included publications were performed. Results: In the 13 selected studies, the instruments adopted to assess the occurrence of adverse events were the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the Canadian Adverse Event Study, the Quality in Australian Health Care Study, and the Global Trigger Tool. Incidence ranged from 5.7 to 14.2%, while preventability ranged from 31 to 83%. Conclusion: Differences in incidence and preventability were found, showing different results in the quality of care provided, the information registered in medical records, the screening criteria used, and the assessments of the reviewers.

Patient readmission is defined as the admission of a patient in the same hospital after discharge. This concept has been used as a performance indicator in health systems, which can reflect the quality of care, and allows monitoring of inappropriate or excessive access to hospital admission. Unnecessary readmissions indicate dysfunctional elements in the health system; result in undue risk to patients and unnecessary costs to the system. It's understood that the study of hospital readmissions allows you to monitor results and managerial actions of healthcare organizations, assisting in resource allocation, guaranteed access and adequate supply of health services and actions. The adoption of the indicator as a quality measure is growing in the United States, and recently in some European countries, although there are controversial studies or inconclusive about the use as a quality indicator. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate hospital readmissions of a large municipality, using descriptive quantitative research design. The study was conducted in Ribeirão Preto, assistance polo and medium and high complexity reference to the 26 municipalities in the area covered by the Regional Health Department XIII, with data from Center for Hospital Data Processing / Regional Observatory of Hospital Care and from Medical Archive and Statistical Service from participant hospitals. The database consisted of 38.145 records hospitalizations resulting from repeated hospitalizations from the same user at one of 11 participating hospitals in the course of 2011. Of the identified hospitalizations, 16.123 were classified as hospital readmissions. The readmission rate for the county was 14.2%, ranging from 2.1 to 31.7% among hospitals. Readmissions occur in up to seven days after discharge from the initial hospitalization, with length of stay less than seven days, with similar distribution between the female and male, in adult patients who have at least one comorbidity. Occurred more frequently in admissions by SUS, in hospitals with over 100 beds and high complexity care. The main causes of readmission turn to diseases related conditions to chronic conditions, especially cancer. From the perspective of quality, with a view to analysis of the three participating hospitals of external quality assessment programs, the adoption of these models aims to reduce readmission rates, when considering the size and complexity of hospital care. Based on these results, it is understood that the use as a outcome indicator should be given in conjunction with other indicators, analyzed according to the institutional reality and intervening factors, particularly with regard to configuration and articulation of different levels of attention and components, as well as the allocation of available resources.