ADVERSE EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH HOSPITAL CARE IN COLOMBIA: A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Objective: To identify adverse events associated with hospital care in Colombia between 2017-2022.
Materials and Methods: Descriptive, quantitative study with Colombian healthcare institutions, public or private, that had reported to the quality information system. Sources of information included databases from the National Observatory of Health Care Quality (ONCAS Colombia), on adverse events, geographic location and discharges. The variables studied were falls, pressure ulcers and medication errors. Statistical analysis was descriptive: frequency and percentage measures were used for qualitative variables, and measures of central tendency and dispersion were used for quantitative variables according to their nature, as determined by the Shapiro-Wilk test. For the geographic analysis, the results were divided into 32 departments and one capital district, which were then categorized by nodes. Results: Data from 1,109
health institutions were analyzed. The national rate of pressure ulcers was 1.39, and 2021 had the highest number of records with a rate of 2.37. The overall rate of falls in the hospital setting was 1.34, while in the emergency department, it was 1.89. The national proportion of medication errors during hospitalization was 2.01, while in the emergency department, it was 0.80. Conclusion: Falls in the emergency department
were the most common event, followed by falls during hospitalization. Additionally, the occurrence of adverse events in Colombia exhibits a heterogeneous geographic distribution, with few reporting institutions predominantly in the Amazonia and Orinoquía regions.