Understanding the PAE Data

Texas General Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers are required to report the preventable adverse events (PAEs) that happen in their facility. Here is an example and explanation of a Facility-Specific Health Care Safety Report – Consumer Version. This will appear at the top of the report:

Description: Facility-Specific Health Care Safety Report - Consumer Version. Reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Time Period: July - December [Final] 2015. Report current as of: 04/01/2016 02:44 PM. PAEs that happen during this time period will be shown at the bottom of this report. Data shown in this report came from two different sources: the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) was the source for CLABSI, CAUTI and SSI tables and the Texas Health Care Safety Network (TxHSN) was the source for the PAE table. PAEs are reported into the Texas Health Care Safety Network (TxHSN).

This statement will appear if the facility reported that they had zero PAEs for the time period:

Description: This facility reported zero TxHSN events to the Texas Department of State Health Services for this reporting time period.

This statement will appear if the facility did not report any PAEs and did not confirm that they had zero number of events for the time period:

Description: This facility failed to report any TxHSN events to the Texas Department of State Health Services for this reporting time period.

PAEs that were reported for the time period will appear at the end of the Healthcare Safety Report in a table that looks like this:

Description: Preventable Adverse Events (PAEs). Type of Event: Events related to patient care. Patient death or severe harm associated with a fall in a health care facility that caused a broken bone. Total Number: 1

Some important things to know about Preventable Adverse Events

This table only shows the actual number of the specific events that occurred. It is not a rate or a percentage.
The number and type of events that different hospitals or surgery centers report can vary based on the size of the facility or the number of procedures that are done. You can refer to the top left corner of this report for those numbers.
All facilities are expected to look very closely at all adverse events to understand why they happened and take action to prevent future patient harm.

For the list of preventable adverse events that are required to be reported click here. For questions send an email to PAETexas@dshs.texas.gov or call 512-776-7676.