Unintentional incidents (UTH)

An unintended event (UTH) is when a citizen risks being injured or is actually injured in the Danish healthcare system.

It is important to know about these incidents or errors. The health service can learn from them and in this way become even better at providing good and safe treatment and care. As a citizen or relative, you are important in this context, as you are involved in the entire process and can report unintended events.

Who can report an adverse event?

Healthcare professionals and other staff have a duty to report unintended incidents that they become aware of in their daily work, for example:

• Hospital staff
• General practitioners
• Pharmacist
• falck
• Social institutions
• Municipal health personnel

Citizens and relatives can also report unintended incidents. You can report anonymously, but it may be an advantage to write the name or telephone number on the report.

What can I report?

An unintentional incident or error can be, for example, if you:

• get too large a dose of medicine due to a calculation error
• do not get medicine because home care forgets to give it
• are forgotten in a toilet because misunderstandings have occurred
• have not been visited by the home care after discharge from hospital, because there have been misunderstandings between the hospital and the home care in particular

What happens to my reporting?

If you report an incident, the report is automatically sent to the region, municipality or private hospital where the incident occurred. In Sonderborg Municipality, we will, on the basis of the report, initiate measures that can improve patient safety.

Reporting an incident is not the same as complaining. You will therefore not receive any feedback on your report.

Can I claim compensation for an injury?

On www.patientforsikringen.dk you can read about how to seek compensation for an injury.