Only Five Percent of U.S. Hospitals Make the Grade
The sixth annual HealthGrades hospital safety survey of the nearly 5,000 non-federal U.S. hospitals has once again found that too many patient lives are being lost to medical errors. In fact, an alarming 211,697 Medicare beneficiaries experienced avoidable patient safety events that resulted in 22,771 deaths, costing not only lives but also about $2 billion from 2005 through 2007. A total of 913,215 safety events costing $6.9 billion occurred with Medicare patients and is equivalent to a reported safety event occurring at the rate of one every 1.7 minutes. Approximately 1 in 10 patients experiencing a safety event died with a total of 97,755 actual in-hospital deaths occurring.
The survey was based on 15 indicators of patient safety that were developed by the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). While eight of these patient safety indicators demonstrated improvement, seven indicators deteriorated in the 2007 survey compared to 2005. Among the worsening indicators were some of the most common as well as the most serious, including bedsores, (decubitus ulcer), sepsis (blood infection), respiratory failure, blood clots in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) and potentially fatal blood clots forming in the lungs (pulmonary embolism), accidental puncture or laceration, postoperative abdominal wound reopening and postoperative physiological and metabolic derangements.
Indicators that demonstrated improvement included complications of anesthesia, death in low mortality Diagnostic Related Groupings (DRGs), death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications, iatrogenic pneumothorax involving accumulation of air in the pleural space that leads to partial or complete lung collapse, selected infections due to medical care, post-operative hip fracture, post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma, and transfusion reaction.
According to Rick May, M.D., senior physician consultant at HealthGrades and co-author of the study, “Patient safety incidents are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. The sad fact is that many, if not most, of these errors are preventable. Patients shouldn’t die or experience unnecessary harm as a result of medical errors in hospitals.” May then acknowledged, “The good news is that there are hospitals that are doing an amazing job when it comes to patient safety and we commend them. Patients need to know that they have a substantially lower risk of experiencing a medical error and therefore a lower risk of death or complications when they are admitted to one of these exceptional top-performing hospitals.”
A total of 242 hospitals representing the top 5 percent of all U.S. hospitals were recipients of the HealthGrades 2009 Patient Safety Excellence Award. The survey showed that patients of these top-performing hospitals have a 43 percent less likelihood of experiencing a medical error compared to those non-federal U.S. hospitals having poor performance. The application of 12 patient safety indicators was used in determining the top performing hospitals. The award was created to allow patients to be better informed when selecting a hospital.
The individual hospital ratings as well as the full study report may be viewed at www.healthgrades.com. HealthGrades, Incorporated is the leading independent healthcare ratings organization and provides quality ratings, profiles and cost information on U.S. hospitals, physicians, nursing homes and prescription drugs.
Information provided by HealthNews.com.
i had an ulcer last year because i am fond of skipping meals and working too hard. it was quite painful:”.