Study shows decrease in surgical patient injuries in Finland

The quality of surgical procedures and patient safety can be assessed by measuring the frequency of patient injuries related to surgical procedures in relation to the total number of surgeries performed. The registry study conducted in Finland found that the trend of patient injuries related to surgical procedures had been declining over a period of five years. The number of patient injuries that were compensated was two for every thousand surgeries performed during the years 2011-2015. However, during the study period, the frequency decreased from 2.5 to 1.9 claims per 1000 surgeries.

The study aimed to identify the surgical procedures in which patient injuries occurred the most in relation to the number of surgeries performed. The researchers analyzed the claims data of the Finnish Patient Insurance Centre (PVK), which covers all claims for medical errors in Finland. The researchers compared the claims data to the surgery data obtained from the Peer Review Database of Surgical Procedures.

The PVK receives around 8,000-9,000 claims every year, and almost one-third of them result in positive compensation decisions. Surgical procedures account for approximately 40-45% of all claims for medical errors. The PVK received nearly 9,000 claims related to surgeries performed between 2011 and 2015. During the same period, almost 1.5 million surgeries were performed. The percentage of claims related to surgeries was 0.61%, while the percentage of compensated claims was 0.22% of all surgeries.

The frequency of patient injuries varies depending on the type of surgery. Some surgeries are performed only rarely, while others are performed tens of thousands of times per year. Cesarean sections, tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, and cataract surgeries are among the most commonly performed procedures. However, claims related to these procedures are relatively infrequent.

In surgeries that involve a large number of procedures (more than 20,000 surgeries during the study period), a claim rate of one percent is considered high. In Finland, no surgical procedures were found to have a claim rate above one percent. This indicates that surgical procedures in Finland have high levels of safety and low rates of patient injury.

According to Annika Takala, a medical device specialist at Helsinki University Hospital, the study's findings may be partially attributed to the implementation of the WHO's surgical safety checklist in Finnish surgical procedures. The checklist was introduced between 2009 and 2011 and aimed to standardize surgical procedures to improve patient safety.

In conclusion, the Finnish registry study has shown a decline in the frequency of patient injuries related to surgical procedures. The report provides valuable information about the quality of surgical procedures and patient safety. The study's findings indicate that surgical procedures in Finland have high levels of safety and low rates of patient injury, and the implementation of the WHO's surgical safety checklist may have contributed to this trend.

HT