What is Never event?

A never event is the "kind of mistake that should never happen" in the field of medical treatment. According to the Leapfrog Group never events are defined as "adverse events that are serious, largely preventable, and of concern to both the public and health care providers for the purpose of public accountability."

A 2012 study reported there may be as many as 1,500 instances of one never event, the retained foreign object, per year in the United States. The same study suggests an estimated total number of surgical mistakes at just over 4,000 per year in the United States; however, these statistics are extrapolations from small samples rather than actual event counts.