The number of incidents involving patient safety reported in Quebec hospitals and long term care homes went up by about 14% last year compared to the previous year, while the number of people who died as a result of such incidents or accidents also went up slightly.
In the report compiled by the Quebec government's national registry of incidents and accidents, the total number went up by 2% - over 513,000 situations that were avoidable, anything from surgeries to ER visits.
Incidents saw the biggest spike - involving anything out of the ordinary that doesn't impact the patient`s health.
Most of the accidents and incidents reported - 85% - had no serious consequences; 421 people died between April 2017 and March 2018 compared to 378 during the same period the previous year.
The most common type of situation: falls and errors linked to medication.
Next is a category labelled "Other" - situations where there were injuries or other consequences with an unknown cause.
More than half of the incidents and accidents involved people who were 75 years and over and who were women.
The report said this raises concerns since the population is aging and more and more seniors are using the healthcare system more often.