Never Event Attorney Charleston, South Carolina

What is a Never Event?

A never event is a mistake without an excuse. According to the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality, there are 29 errors defined as “never events.” They are grouped into different categories. They include:

• Care management –  An error in administering medication or blood products administered in an unsafe manner that leads to serious injury or death. Care management events can include:
  • Harm to a mother or baby during labor or delivery in a low-risk pregnancy
  • Artificial insemination with the incorrect sperm or donor egg
  • The loss of a biological specimen or harm to a patient as a result of failing to provide follow-up care.
  • If a patient acquires stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers (bed sores)
  • If a patient falls when in a healthcare setting.
• Product/device – When a medical device is used in an incorrect manner or when a medical device is misused or a tainted medical device or drug is used and causes death.
• Patient protection – When a care facility releases a patient who cannot care for himself to someone other than an authorized person,
  the disappearance of a patient that leads to disability or death or, the suicide or attempted suicide of a patient that occurs while the patient is being cared for in a healthcare facility.
• Environmental – examples include: electrical shock, oxygen lines containing no gas or the incorrect gas, burn injuries, and the use of bed restraints that cause serious injury or death.
• Radiological events – When a negligent person allows for the introduction of a metallic object during an MRI, causing death or serious bodily injury.
• Surgical error – For example, when surgery is performed on an incorrect body part or the incorrect patient, the incorrect surgery is performed, or a foreign object such as a surgical sponge or medical device is left inside of a patient’s body.
• Criminal events – Care provided by someone impersonating a health doctor, abduction of a patient, sexual abuse of a patient by a health doctor or physical assault of a patient in a healthcare setting.

These things should not ever occur in a healthcare setting and when they do, the doctor, or healthcare facility can be held legally liable for the consequences.

How Often Do Never Events Occur?

A recent study, based on data collected between 1990 and 2010, indicates around 80,000 never events have occurred in the U.S. during that time.

According to the study:

• Patients underwent the incorrect procedure 20 times a week.
• The incorrect body part was operated on 20 times a week.
• Surgeons left foreign objects in a patient 49 times a week.

Not surprisingly, surgeons that had a history of malpractice made it more likely that one of these events would occur.

Medical Advances and Imperfections

Having to undergo a medical procedure is never without a certain amount of trepidation; medical procedures are usually linked to health scares, and those are stressful enough. Modern medicine continues to advance its methods and capabilities, and our healthcare system is the better for it. We are living healthier and more active lives because of modern medical accomplishments. 

The medical profession, however, is comprised of medical professionals – people who make mistakes just like everyone else. Some of the mistakes medical professionals make are more understandable than others, and some should simply never happen under any circumstances. 

The term never event was first used by the National Quality Forum (NQF) in 2001 to refer to medical errors of such shocking nature that they simply should have never happened. There is no possibility for reasonable or understandable explanation. The term has been expanded over the years to encompass adverse medical events that share common traits:

• They are unambiguous (able to be clearly identified and measured).
• They are serious, resulting in significant disability or death.
• They are usually preventable.