Patient Safety in Hospitals - DC Ranks Among the Worst
Unfortunately, our medical malpractice clients experience first-hand the consequences of the rising number of preventable medical errors at local hospitals. These preventable errors include equipment defects, medication errors, failure to diagnose, brain injuries during childbirth, and hospital acquired infections. The District of Columbia ranked among the worst for patient safety in Hospitals during the 2002-2004 reporting period.
According to the April 2006 study published by Health Grades, between 2002 and 2004 approximately 1.24 million patient safety incidents occurred during 40 million hospitalizations in the United States. These incidents were associated with $9.3 billion in excess costs. For a second year in a row, the overall number of patient safety incidents increased. The information in the study comes directly from data that hospitals report regarding patient safety incidents for medicare patients. Most U.S. Hospitals report patient safety incidents to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as part of their participation in the Medicare reimbursement program.
Of the 304,702 deaths reported as "patient safety incidents" 250,246 were classified as potentially preventable.
There was a highly significant gap in the individual performance of hospitals in different states during the 2002 through 2004 period.
If all hospitals performed at the level of the top hospitals in the survey, the study estimates that 280,134 patient safety incidents and 44,153 deaths could have been avoided while saving the U.S. $2.45 billion during 2002-2004.
The District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee and Nevada ranked last for patient safety during the 2002-2004 period.
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Kansas ranked as the top states for patient safety during the 2002-2004 period.
When compared to the Second Annual Patient Safety study, the rates of the six key areas of improvement remain unimproved. The focus areas include: post-operative respiratory failure, decubitus ulcers and hospital-acquired infections. These areas continued to worsen on average by almost 12 percent or more.
You can read all of the findings in the report by going the Health Grades site.