Joint Commission Release Top Causes for Four Common Surgical Errors

Recently, the Joint Commission released data that covers a ten year period (2004-2014) concerning the root causes for the four most common surgical errors identified as anesthesia-related, operative or postoperative complication, unintended retention of surgical object and wrong-patient, wrong-patient, wrong-procedure sentinel events. The 29-page report is worth reading and is quite revealing in terms of root causes for these types of surgical errors. Interestingly, human factors, communication issues, and leadership play leading roles in each of the areas of study.