Which two patient safety metrics are commonly tracked in PMU settings?

• A. Readmission rate and length of stay
• B. Surgical site infections and infection rate
• C. Appointment wait times and patient census
• D. Medication errors and patient falls

Answer: (D)

In PMU patient safety metrics, teams track incidents that can harm patients and are preventable, such as medication errors and patient falls. Medication errors cover the wrong drug, dose, route, or timing, and monitoring them helps strengthen prescribing and administration processes, double-check systems, and pharmacist involvement. Patient falls reflect safety culture and the effectiveness of fall-prevention strategies—risk assessment, proper assistive devices, staff vigilance, and safe patient handling. Together, these two metrics directly measure safety performance and the impact of improvement efforts in the unit.

The other options focus more on outcomes or processes that aren’t primary safety events: readmission rates and length of stay relate to overall outcomes and resource use; surgical site infections and infection rate are specific to infection control; appointment wait times and patient census relate to access and throughput rather than safety events.