Unreported accidents to patients in hospital.

A study to discover the incidence of unreported patient accidents was carried out in 10 wards in a large acute hospital. There were three separate survey days, 10 weeks apart, and sources of data included patients, records and accident report books. The 574 patients who participated in the study had sustained, during their stay in hospital, 75 accidents. Of these 49 (65%) were reported (documented on an accident report form) and 26 (35%) were unreported. Multiple unreported accidents to three patients accounted for 14 of the unreported accidents. Patient responses suggested that staff knew about the unreported accidents in the majority of cases. Conclusions and recommendations from this, and the two preceding studies include improved maintenance, increased awareness of patients' views and radical change to the present reporting procedure, as ways of improving patient accident data, patient safety and care.