Which statement describes a sentinel event?

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Multiple Choice

Which statement describes a sentinel event?

Sentinel events are unexpected health care incidents that result in death or serious physical or psychological injury to a patient, or the risk of that level of harm, and they require immediate investigation and response. That makes the statement describing death or serious injury with an immediate investigation the best choice, because it captures both the severity of the outcome and the urgent follow-up that defines a sentinel event. The other scenarios don’t fit: a near miss didn’t actually harm someone, so it isn’t an event that resulted in harm; a planned routine check with no harm is not an incident; a minor medication error that does not cause harm also doesn’t meet the threshold of death or serious injury (or the risk thereof) that triggers sentinel-event review.

Sentinel events are unexpected health care incidents that result in death or serious physical or psychological injury to a patient, or the risk of that level of harm, and they require immediate investigation and response. That makes the statement describing death or serious injury with an immediate investigation the best choice, because it captures both the severity of the outcome and the urgent follow-up that defines a sentinel event.

The other scenarios don’t fit: a near miss didn’t actually harm someone, so it isn’t an event that resulted in harm; a planned routine check with no harm is not an incident; a minor medication error that does not cause harm also doesn’t meet the threshold of death or serious injury (or the risk thereof) that triggers sentinel-event review.

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