Medical Errors Cost $8.8B Over Three Years

[OhioChick]

Source: Internet Broadcasting

238,000 Medicare Patients Die From Mistakes
POSTED: 10:59 am EDT April 8, 2008

Medical errors in treating Medicare patients cost the program $8.8 billion from 2004 to 2006, according to a new study.

HealthGrades' study of patient safety found that the safety incidents also caused 238,337 preventable deaths.

The group's review of 41 million patient records found that errors were made in 3 percent of all admissions, and those who suffered an error had a one-in-five chance of dying.

Some of the medical errors counted in the survey were:

Accidental puncture or laceration
Complications of anesthesia
Bed sores
Failure to rescue
Foreign body left in during procedure
Selected infections due to medical care
Post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma
Post-operative hip fracture
Post-operative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
Post-operative respiratory failure
Post-operative sepsis

Bed sores, failure to rescue and respiratory failure made up 63.4 percent of the incidents.

The issue could be critical for hospitals, which will stop getting reimbursement for some errors later this year.



Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/health/15823993/detail.html

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And just think....this number represents only the cases that are taken, or won.

[Donnachaidh]

1. yet we still have people who think it's WRONG to sue doctors and hospitals for mistakes.

Congress and state governments always get vocal about lawyers suing - yet the people who NEED the lawyers keep dying, from MISTAKES.

[CountAllVotes]

5. delete

n/t

[madrchsod]

2. infection from an operation cost me after insurance

over 8000 dollars and two months of... well you do`t want to know.

8000 dollars-new 85% efficient furnace and 75% efficient air conditioner plus all new windows in my house and

what`s ever left over buy parts to rebuild my 40 mpg honda crx....nope got to pay for the hospital`s error

[cyr330]

3. I could tell you some stories. . . .

I'm an RN, and I've seen some ugly situations in hospitals over the years. If you knew what I know about American health care, you would NEVER allow yourself or anybody you care about to be hospitalized without some outside supervision. . . .

[AP]

4. That's just the value of successful claims. I wonder if it's anywhere near actual cost to society &

to victims.