Medical Mistakes Kill 15,000 Patients Every Month
Ethan A. Huff, November 20, 2010
Your local hospital just might be more of a death trap than an
actual health care facility. A new report issued by the Office of Inspector
General at the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) says that every month
roughly 134,000 hospital patients experience some type of adverse event during
their stays. And about 15,000 of them die every month due to various medical and
surgical errors.
According to the report, such adverse events include surgery mistakes,
medication dosage errors, improper care protocols, and transmission of infection
due to filthy conditions. In fact, patients are often admitted to hospitals in
healthier condition than when they leave (if they even do), and much of the time
their health declines are a result of avoidable medical errors.
Many hospitals are also hotbeds of infectious diseases like Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the infamous hospital "superbug" that kills
roughly 48,000 people every year.
Nearly 50 percent of all adverse event problems are avoidable, according to the
report. But since there is no tracking system in place to address the problems
and work towards fixing them, many hospitals continue to make them without
consequence -- and the vast majority of hospital patients have no idea about the
significant risks they face.
"This report shows that hospital patients are being harmed by medical errors at
an alarming rate," explained Lisa McGiffert from Consumers Union, in a
statement. "Unfortunately, most Americans have no way of knowing whether their
hospital is doing a good job preventing medical errors."
At this time, there is no solid way to determine where hospitals rank in terms
of overall safety performance because no reporting system exists for tracking
this information. But the report urges both the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work towards
implementing one.