Serious Reportable Events (SRE’s)are defined as a compilation of serious, largely preventable, and harmful clinical events, designed to help the healthcare field assess, measure, and report performance in providing safe care” (NQF, 2014). The requirement to address and report SRE’s expanded from hospitals to clinical settings where patients receive care, including “office-based practices, ambulatory surgery centers, and skilled nursing facilities” (NQF, 2014).

As one is considering actions to take to avoid never-events/serious reportable events or healthcare acquired conditions from occurring, the focus needs to be on implementing an organizational structure and management style which promotes and expects individual competency and accountability for care and services provided.

Objectives

After studying the information presented, the reader should be able to:

• Identify the major events in the history leading to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 addressing cost of never-events to the healthcare system
• Describe the basis for transformation of inpatient care as this relates to elimination of Serious Reportable Events
• Discuss the needed cultural changes to successfully implement the transformation of inpatient care to the level of safety desired
• Discuss critical aspects of infection control as they relate to the elimination of hospital-acquired infections
• List the benefits of patient centered care as it relates to prevention of medical errors and Serious Reportable Events
• Discuss the impact of identifying Serious Reportable Events and the potential for litigation if a Serious Reportable Events
• Describe effective approaches to care delivery aimed at preventing Serious Reportable Events occurs