Patient Safety Authority (PSA) staff review reports of unplanned returns to the operating room (OR). Many of these events are incorrectly reported as incidents.
If an injury occurs related to the clinical care of the patient in the healthcare facility—and the patient needs additional healthcare services, including a return to the OR—this is a serious event.
See an example here.
Planned returns to the OR: For example, a scheduled two-part procedure is not reportable (as an incident or serious event).
Additionally, if a patient is at higher-than-normal risk of returning to the OR, or if returning to the OR is expected to occur frequently for a particular procedure, this is not reportable. However, the patient must be made aware of this higher risk, and it must be documented.
While failing to report a serious event violates the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act, submitting nonreportable events into the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is also problematic.
Submitting a report when a patient safety event did not occur (e.g., the scheduled two-part procedure) artificially inflates the number of patients returning to the OR. This could make your organization appear less safe than it is—especially if you were asked to produce a raw aggregate list.
Please contact your patient safety liaison if you have ANY questions about whether an event is reportable.
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