What are 'Never Events' in hospital care?

• A. Serious, preventable incidents that should never occur in a healthcare setting
• B. Minor events that are expected
• C. Incidents that occur only in outpatient clinics
• D. Events that happen due to noncompliance with scheduling

Answer: (A)

Never Events are serious, preventable incidents that should never occur in a hospital or healthcare setting. They reflect failures in safety systems rather than unfortunate outcomes, and they cause significant harm or risk to patients. Because they are preventable, they highlight gaps in processes such as wrong-site or wrong-procedure surgery, leaving foreign objects in a patient, wrong-patient care, certain transfusion errors, and other avoidable harms. They aren’t minor or expected events, and they can happen in any care environment, not just one setting. Recognizing Never Events prompts thorough root-cause analysis and system-level improvements to prevent recurrence, and they often drive stricter reporting and policy changes.