This IHI tool is a way of identifying and measuring adverse events in patient care. It is a method for measuring the overall level of harm that may be occurring in a healthcare organisation.

The tool provides instructions and forms for collecting the data you need to track three measures:

• adverse events per 1,000 patient days
• adverse events per 100 admissions
• percent of admissions with an adverse event.

It is a comprehensive guide to using the Global Trigger Tool method, including all the currently known triggers, and offers guidance on how to select records for review. The tool explains how to train people in this methodology and how to conduct retrospective reviews of patient records to identify triggers and possible adverse events.

A UK version of the toolkit has also been developed.