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Objective: To know what hospital managers and safety leaders in Ibero-American countries are doing to respond effectively to the occurrence of adverse events (AEs) with serious consequences for patients., Design: Cross-sectional international study., Setting: Public and private hospitals in Ibero-American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Spain)., Participants: A convenience sample of hospital managers and safety leaders from eight Ibero-American countries. A minimum of 25 managers/leaders from each country were surveyed., Interventions: A selection of 37 actions for the effective management of AEs was explored. These were related to the safety culture, existence of a crisis plan, communication and transparency processes with the patients and their families, attention to second victims and institutional communication., Main Outcome Measure: Degree of implementation of the actions studied., Results: A total of 190 managers/leaders from 126 (66.3%) public hospitals and 64 (33.7%) private hospitals participated. Reporting systems, in-depth analysis of incidents and non-punitive approaches were the most implemented interventions, while patient information and care for second victims after an AE were the least frequent interventions., Conclusions: The majority of these hospitals have not protocolized how to act after an AE. For this reason, it is urgent to develop and apply a strategic action plan to respond to this imperative safety challenge. This is the first study to identify areas of work and future research questions in Ibero-American countries., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)