Health and Disability Sector Harm (Adverse) Events Infographic

Harm during the provision of health care has wide-ranging negative impacts on wellbeing and relationships for consumers, whānau, health workers and communities.  It is important the event of harm provides the opportunity to heal, learn and improve, with a focus on meeting the unique needs of all the people involved.  

The Health and Disability Sector Harm (Adverse) Events infographics are intended to inform providers, consumers, whānau and communities on the harm (adverse) events reported to Te Tāhū Hauora. 
The infographics currently available are for the:

• 2022/23 year (1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023) under the National Adverse Event policy 2017.
• 2023/24 year (1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024) under the revised 'Healing, learning and improving from harm: National adverse events policy 2023 |Te whakaora, te ako me te whakapai ake i te kino : Te kaupapa here ā-motu mō ngā mahi tūkino 2023'.

Reporting harm | Te tuku 

The ‘Ngā paerewa health and disability services standard’ (Standards New Zealand 2021) cover a wider range of health and disability providers. Reporting harm (adverse) events to Te Tāhū Hauora is a criterion in the standard. 
Te Tāhū Hauora is actively supporting the sector with capability building and codesigned resources.  
The reporting moved from annual to quarterly in 2020/21 which has enabled more timely public access to adverse (harm) event data. 

The annual harm (adverse) events summary, informed by statistical analysis and soft intelligence, guides where to focus improvement opportunities. 

Severity Assessment Codes (SAC)

Events are given a Severity Assessment Code (SAC) which reflect the impact of a harm (adverse) event on a consumer from those involving death or severe loss of function and/or requiring life-saving intervention (SAC 1), or major loss of function and/or requiring significant intervention (SAC 2). 

The harm (adverse) event numbers are based on a snapshot in time of reported harm (adverse) events: once organisations complete their harm (adverse) event reviews, the SAC rating may change or the events may be withdrawn which affects the total numbers of harm events. 

We acknowledge it is not reflective of all health care harm and does not diminish nor discount the experiences of other consumers, whānau, health workers and communities. 

National quarterly dashboard: harm (adverse) events