What are Sentinel Events?

• A. Events that improve patient safety.
• B. Routine checkups.
• C. Unexpected events causing serious physical or psychological injury or death in a healthcare setting.
• D. Non-urgent patient complaints.

Answer: (C)

Sentinel events are the most serious patient safety events in healthcare. They are unexpected and result in death or serious physical or psychological injury to a patient, or require a life-saving intervention. Because of their severity, they trigger immediate organizational responses—like mandatory reporting, root cause analysis, and system-wide changes—to prevent recurrence. They reflect flaws in care processes or systems rather than routine issues, and the goal is learning and improving safety across the organization. Routine checkups or non-urgent complaints are not sentinel events because they do not involve unexpected harm to patients.