Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) recently announced they are aligning the Joint Commission’s Sentinel Events (SE) List and NQF’s recently updated Serious Reportable Events (SRE) List, streamlining safety event reporting and eliminating the need to maintain separate safety measurement frameworks. The report, Aligning Patient Safety Event Reporting, details the updates and includes specific application guidance to enable a standardized implementation. Click here to review and download.
Joint Commission will adopt the updated SRE List as part of the SE List effective January 1, 2027, across all accredited organizations, domestic and international, allowing time for healthcare organizations to make the required changes, and will provide technical support to accredited organizations during the transition.
We are urging WOC nurses to pay particular attention to SRE 21: Patient Harm Associated with a Stage 3 Pressure Injury, Stage 4 Pressure Injury, Unstageable Pressure Injury, or Deep Tissue Pressure Injury Acquired After Admission, found on pages 111-114.
Additionally, those who care for pediatric/neonatal patients may also want to call their attention to SRE 27: Patient Harm Associated with the Care of a Neonate, found on pages 130-135.
Background:
NQF first published the SRE List in 2002, updated it in 2011, and revised it again 2026. For each iteration of the SRE list, NQF convened experts to identify a consensus-based subset of patient safety incidents that are not only largely preventable but also cause serious harm and should never occur in healthcare settings. Many states and healthcare organizations use the SRE List today for both mandatory and voluntary SRE reporting.
*SRE 15 has been replaced by SRE 21 in the newly published 2025 Updates to Sentinel Events and Serious Reportable Events.