Foreign-Body-Left-In - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Foreign Body Left In

Alternate Name

Rate of a foreign body left inside the patient's body during a procedure, per 100,000 hospital discharges

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicators reports on the rate of foreign bodies (such as sponges and instruments) that were left behind in patients after surgery per 100,000 discharges

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public Reports (annual report, bulletins and theme reports)

Dimension

Safe

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Rate

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by denominator multiplied by 100,000 discharges

Numerator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

Total number of discharges with foreign body left inside the body during a procedure

Denominator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

All surgical and medical discharges, 15 years and older. Include all valid discharges (i.e. allow more than one index admission per patient, if someone had multiple admissions that qualify for denominator).

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- generalized

None

Data Source

Discharge Abstract Database (DAD)

Data provided to HQO by

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Province

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

Many of peer countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, do not report on this measure, which makes comparisons difficult