[Marxism] In-Hospital Deaths of Medicare patients from Medical Errors at 195, 000 per Year

[sabocat59@xxxxxxx]

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/iatrogenic/message/1451

Study Highlights 

 Among the findings in the HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals 
study are as follows:  

  •      About 1.14 million patient-safety incidents occurred among the 37 
million hospitalizations in the Medicare population over the years 2000-2002. 

   •      Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years 
who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 263,864, or 81 percent, of 
these deaths were directly attributable to the incident(s).   

 •      One in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 
2002 and experienced a patient-safety incident died.    

•    The 16 patient-safety incidents accounted for $8.54 billion in excess 
in-patient costs to the Medicare system over the three years studied.  
Extrapolated to the entire U.S., an extra $19 billion was spent and more than 
575,000 preventable deaths occurred from 2000 to 2002. 

   •      Patient-safety incidents with the highest rates per 1,000 
hospitalizations were failure to rescue, decubitus ulcer and postoperative 
sepsis, which accounted for almost 60 percent of all patient-safety incidents 
that occurred. 

   •      Overall, the best performing hospitals (hospitals that had the lowest 
overall patient safety incident rates of all hospitals studied, defined as the 
top 7.5 percent of all hospitals studied) had five fewer deaths per 1000 
hospitalizations compared to the bottom 10th percentile of hospitals. This 
significant mortality difference is attributable to fewer patient-safety 
incidents at the best performing hospitals.   

 •      Fewer patient safety incidents in the best performing hospitals 
resulted in a lower cost of $740,337 per 1,000 hospitalizations as compared to 
the bottom 10th percentile of hospitals. The complete study, including the list 
of AHRQ patient-safety indicators, can be found at http://www.healthgrades.com. ;

“If the Center for Disease Control’s annual list of leading causes of death 
included medical errors, it would show up as number six, ahead of diabetes, 
pneumonia, Alzheimer’s disease and renal disease,” continued Dr. Collier. 
“Hospitals need to act on this, and consumers need to arm themselves with 
enough information to make quality-oriented health care choices when selecting 
a hospital.” 


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