Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, § 1912 - Definitions in relation to the Patient Safety Surveillance And Improvement System under the health law

“Definitions under the health law”

"Adverse event" is any untoward incident, therapeutic misadventure, iatrogenic injury, or other undesirable occurrence directly associated with care or services provided by a health care provider or health care facility.

"Causal analysis" means a formal root cause analysis that use a systematic approach to identify the basic or causal factors that underlie the occurrence or possible occurrence of a reportable adverse event, adverse event, or near miss.

"Corrective action plan" means a plan to implement strategies intended to eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of a recurrence of an adverse event and to measure the effectiveness of such strategies.

An "intentional unsafe act" is an adverse event or near miss that results from a criminal act, a purposefully unsafe act, alcohol or substance abuse, or patient abuse.

"Near miss" means any process variation that did not affect the outcome, but for which a recurrence carries a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome.

"Reportable adverse event" means those adverse events a hospital is required to report to the department pursuant to Vermont regulations.

"Safety system" means a comprehensive patient safety surveillance and improvement system.

"Serious bodily injury" means bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes substantial loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ or substantial impairment of health or substantial disfigurement.