TORONTO – According to a new study published a few days ago, more than 153,000 patients were harmed in Canadian hospitals last year out of a total of 2.6 million admissions. In the period examined, 2024-25, one in 17 hospital admissions resulted in at least one harmful event. In a quarter of cases, multiple harms occurred.  

As reported by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, study’s author (here the link to the research), these harms can include: a medication error, a hospital-acquired infection, a “patient accident” such as a fall or radiation burn, or some other incident serious enough to require additional treatment or prolonged hospitalization. But the figure of 153,000 “injuries” is actually underestimated: for example, the study does not consider injuries involving people diagnosed with mental health or substance abuse problems, nor injuries that occur in emergency rooms, or injuries that begin in hospital but aren’t detected until the person is discharged. Furthermore, the CIHI does not track deaths related to hospital injuries, because the study relies on a discharge database. Furthermore, the report excludes data from Quebec. The toll, therefore, could be much worse, even though it is already extremely negative.

The overall injury rate remained at 6% for the fifth consecutive year, higher than in pre-COVID-19 years. After peaking in the early years of the pandemic, “we haven’t really rebounded” Melanie Josee Davidson, director of health system performance at CIHI, told the media. “The whole health system is still reverberating from the COVID period and still finding its feet” she added.

Few cases of “hospital injury” are due to actual negligence or, even more rarely, malicious intent to harm. And negative “outcomes” occur even in the best hospitals. However, many injuries are avoidable or at least potentially preventable.

People who suffer injuries during hospitalization remain, on average, five times longer: almost a full month, 28 days, compared to 6 days for those who do not suffer injuries. And this ends up costing a lot: the average cost of a prolonged hospital stay due to a “hospital injury” is nearly $45,000, while that of a regular stay is less than $10,000.

Going into detail about the damages, the data show that in 2024-25, there were 55,929 hospital-acquired infections, 6,769 “patient incidents,” 33,470 procedure-related injuries such as puncture wounds during surgery, and 86,817 drug-related conditions. Over 21,600 people developed “delirium”, a sudden and severe state of confusion often related to age and caused by “one thing compounding another” such as being in an unfamiliar environment and experiencing interrupted sleep, a common occurrence in hospitals, especially among older people – here below is a graphic by CIHI about the “top 6 harmful events”.

Falls are also a very common cause of patient accidents. “We also see fractures or dislocations” said Davidson, especially among the most frail patients. ““It’s not necessarily that you got up and fell out of bed. But during the process of care there might be trauma to the body…”.

The study is the result of a partnership between CIHI and Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC) aimed at answering the question, “How often do patients experience harm in hospital?” The answer is quite telling…

All the graphics are from: Canadian Institute for Health Information. Patient harm in Canadian hospitals? It does happen. Accessed October 9, 2025.