Sensitivity of routine system for reporting patient safety incidents in an NHS hospital: retrospective patient case note review

Interesting article.
I would like to know how many of these adverse incidents occurred in
acutely unwell patients, and how many occurred in elective patients.
"Adverse incidents" in acutely unwell patients might just be part of the
natural history of their illness, or might be unavoidable to some extent
e.g. someone with multiorgan failure on multiple drugs and infusions is
more likely to subject to a drug error (but need to be exposed to that
risk) than someone who just attends for a routine out-patients.
I think investigating and doing something about adverse incidents in
elective patients might be a more efficient use of precious time.

Competing interests:
None declared