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This study aimed to analyze the frequency, severity, and associated factors of patient safety incidents in long-term care hospitals in Korea, utilizing patient safety statistics. The objective was to provide foundational data for the development of system improvement strategies aimed at reducing the risk of harm occurrence in the future. From 2018 to 2022, a total of 10,117 patient safety incidents occurring in long-term care hospitals were analyzed. Cross-tabulation using chi-square tests was conducted to examine differences in the severity of patient safety incidents based on hospital-related characteristics and patient-related characteristics. Additionally, binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors influencing the occurrence of harm in patient safety incidents. The risk of harm occurrence was approximately 1.2 times higher in hospitals with fewer than 200 beds and about 1.4 times higher in hospitals with 200-500 beds compared to those with over 500 beds. Furthermore, compared to medication errors, the risk of harm occurrence was approximately 74.8 times higher for injuries, 24.9 times higher for suicide·self-harm incidents, 10.7 times higher for meal-related incidents, and 7.6 times higher for falls. Given that long-term care hospitals with fewer than 200 beds are in a legal gray area and have a higher risk of harm occurrence in patient safety incidents, legislation for patient safety management is necessary. Additionally, since injuries pose a significantly higher risk of harm occurrence compared to medication errors, it is imperative to accurately identify the causes of injuries in long-term care hospitals and devise prevention measures.
Gu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.