Human errors significantly contribute to surgical adverse events

Over a decade, 52.7% of 14,237 adverse events in a South African surgical department were linked to human error. This resulted in an error rate of 14% per admission and 2% per inpatient day, correlating with increased length of hospital stays and mortality. Addressing these errors requires comprehensive, multilevel interventions rather than isolated actions, emphasizing the complexity of improving surgical safety and patient outcomes.