Sentinel events are identified under The Joint Commission (TJC) accreditation policies to help aid in root cause analysis and to assist in development of preventive measures.
Sentinel events include "unexpected occurrences involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof".
[1] They also include the following, even if death or major loss of function did not occur: In addition to the list above, The Joint Commission requires each accredited organization to define sentinel events for its own care system and put into place monitoring procedures to detect these events and a procedure for root cause analysis.
Participation is necessary by the leadership of TJC accredited healthcare organizations and by the persons closely involved in the systems under review.
A healthcare facility that fails to complete a root cause analysis of the sentinel event and action plan within the time frame can be placed on "Accreditation Watch" by the Joint Commission, a status that can be publicly disclosed.