[Patient safety: analysis of the incidents notified in a hospital, in south of Brazil].

This study aimed to evaluate the incidents reported between the years 2008 and 2012, in a large hospital in southern Brazil. This is a retrospective study of documentary analysis, transverse and descriptive with a quantitative approach. Data was collected in march 2013, analyzed and presented as absolute and relative frequency. We identified 755 cases; this represented 1.1% of total hospitalizations. The higher frequency of reporting in inpatient units was 64.8%. The incident with the highest prevalence in this study was 45.4% falls, followed by medication error 16.7% and 16.2% other incidents. The low number of notifications can be related to the system adopted by the institution where the professional who notifies the incident needs to be identified.