Incidence and documentation of patient accidents in hospital.

A one-year in-depth, prospective study of 728 reported patient accidents in 10 wards at a large acute hospital was carried out, using both primary and secondary data from patients, staff and records. Over 200 patients were interviewed. The fact that this represented just 29% of study patients was not surprising, owing to the high incidence of poor mental status among accident patients. However, a large amount of valuable information was collected. Some results confirmed earlier studies, in particular, that falls to older patients were the most common type of accident. The new findings revealed large differences between patients' and staff's accounts of the accidents, that the reporting of the most serious accident outcomes were often the most poorly recorded and that lunar cycles may influence patient accident frequency. This is the first in a series of three articles on patient accidents in hospital. Each one is the account of a distinct study but they were carried out consecutively at the same hospital, using the same ward population. The studies, each with different strengths and limitations, are intended to stand together to provide a more comprehensive understanding of patient accidents.