1Department of Dental Hygiene, Howon University
2R&D Center, Korea Medical Institute
Correspondence to Jihyun Ahn, R&D Center, Korea Medical Institute, 117 Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04522, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3702-9202, Fax: +82-2-3702-9100, E-mail: jihyunahnmd@gmail.com
Volume 26, Number 2, Pages 203–11, April 2026.
J Korean Soc Dent Hyg 2026;26(2):203–11. https://doi.org/10.13065/jksdh.2026.26.2.7
Received on January 30, 2026, Revised on April 07, 2026, Accepted on April 08, 2026, Published on April 30, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Journal of Korean Society of Dental Hygiene.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).
Objectives: This study aimed to identify the characteristics and severity levels of patient safety incidents in dental institutions using national reporting data and to analyze the factors associated with incident severity. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on 383 dental-related incidents reported to the Korean Patient Safety Reporting and Learning System (KOPS) from 2019 to 2023. General characteristics and severity levels (near miss, adverse events, and sentinel events) were analyzed using frequency analysis, chi-square tests, and logistic regression. Results: Near misses accounted for 80.4%, adverse events 15.4%, and sentinel events 4.2%. Severity differed significantly according to age, incident location, time, type, hospital size, reporter, and department (p<0.05). Compared with patient rooms, treatment and operating rooms showed 9.07-fold higher odds of high-severity events. Hospitals with 200–500 beds and ≥500 beds showed 23.8-fold and 20.4-fold higher odds, respectively (p<0.001). Conclusions: Safety management strategies focusing on high-risk clinical areas, considering the characteristics of dental care, and strengthening the organizational patient safety culture are needed.
Adverse event, Dental, Near miss, Patient safety, Sentinel event