Thirteen reviews were inconclusive, and eight, including four of the 12 conclusive SRs, noted the lack of adequate reporting of potential adverse effects or incidence of harm.
Although a number of explicit patient safety risks have been identified, the incidence of harm in primary care has not yet been quantified reliably [ 4].
The incidence of harm in all contacts including surgical and ENT patients and in admissions only regardless of specialty was similar, 6.3% and 8.3%, respectively.
With nonmaleficence, absence of evidence of harm does not equal proof of absence of harm; the incidence of harm from heparin is credible and has not been systematically examined.
Firstly, to quantify the incidence of harm in defined patient populations at given points in time (e.g. the number of unintentional harm incidents detected in the clinical records of a population of patients with diabetes mellitus).
In eight SRs, including four of the 12 SRs that were considered to be conclusive, the lack of adequate reporting of potential adverse effects or incidence of harm was specifically noted (see Table 2).
Other studies dealt with legal means for motivating healthcare workers and offering enhanced legal protection against liability while reducing the incidence of harm claims during disasters and pandemics (48, 49).
Moreover, the results of such risk projections are routinely used to arrive at a variety of types of determinations needed for practical decisions, for example: How extensive is the cleanup that is needed at hazardous waste sites to achieve risks that are below X incidence of harm with Z confidence?
This study questions the utility of evidence-based approaches as a uni-dimensional approach to improving clinical care and underscores the importance of standardised approaches to include adverse events, incidence of harm, patient's needs and preferences and clinician's expertise and discretion.
Such data sets were generated only when very low precision (estimation error > ±100%) and power (<20%) were expected, and therefore represent CRR scenarios that should be avoided when aiming to study, measure or monitor the incidence of harm in general practice.
