Unanticipated death after discharge home from the emergency department.

Study Objective: We measured the frequency of unanticipated death among patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) and reviewed these cases for patterns of potential preventable medical error.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort of ED patients who were discharged to home from an urban tertiary-care facility after their evaluation, with subsequent case review. Subjects were aged 10 years and older, representing 387,334 visits among 186,859 individuals, February 1994 through November 2004.