The Joint Commission Summary of Sentinel Events – 2Q 2016

Here’s a summary for reported sentinel events for the 2nd quarter of this year, compiled by The Joint Commission. It also compares some of the data against previous years.
It is almost impossible to make accurate comparisons on this data, since all reports are voluntary and, as stated in the report:

“Data Limitations: The reporting of most sentinel events to The Joint Commission is voluntary and represents only a small proportion of actual events. Therefore, these data are not an epidemiologic data set and no conclusions should be drawn about the actual relative frequency of events or trends in events over time. ”

Without knowing who is reporting, who is not reporting, how these numbers are compiled or arrived at, how the problem types are assigned, etc., I’m having a tough time viewing the data in an objective light.

While the data is interesting, I’m not sure how this data is used.  Can anyone give me an example of how the data in this summary might be used?