Never Event

Category: legal

A catastrophic, preventable medical error that should never occur under proper care protocols.

Never events include occurrences like operating on the wrong body part, leaving a surgical sponge inside a patient, or discharging an infant to the wrong individual. These represent the highest level of clinical negligence and trigger mandatory state-level reporting and potential license revocation.

Common Examples

• The surgical team’s failure to perform a formal time-out check before incision was the primary cause of the preventable never event.
• Never events carry the highest legal and financial liability profiles in the medical industry, necessitating immediate internal audit protocols.