Thursday, July 29, 2004
Medical errors on the rise
["Fatal Medical Errors," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 29 July 2004.]
Pharmaceuticals and new technologies are often blamed for rising health care costs, but there is another, more ominous factor at work according to recent reports:
A new study estimates that the number of patients who died from medical errors is more than double the findings in a 1999 report that sparked major concern.
If hospital errors were reported by the Centers for Disease Control as a cause of death, they would rank sixth, ahead of diabetes, influenza, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers.
The study by Health Grades Inc., a consulting firm in Colorado, used data from Medicare patients over age 65. The data was then adjusted to compensate for age. Researchers found that:
- Medical errors contributed to almost 600,000 patient deaths over the past three years, or about 195,000 per year.
- An earlier Institute of Medicine report estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 preventable deaths occurred each year due to medical errors.
- The costs associated with treating Medicare patients who were victims of medical errors is about $2.9 billion a year.
["Fatal Medical Errors," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 29 July 2004.]
Pharmaceuticals and new technologies are often blamed for rising health care costs, but there is another, more ominous factor at work according to recent reports:
A new study estimates that the number of patients who died from medical errors is more than double the findings in a 1999 report that sparked major concern.
If hospital errors were reported by the Centers for Disease Control as a cause of death, they would rank sixth, ahead of diabetes, influenza, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers.
The study by Health Grades Inc., a consulting firm in Colorado, used data from Medicare patients over age 65. The data was then adjusted to compensate for age. Researchers found that:
- Medical errors contributed to almost 600,000 patient deaths over the past three years, or about 195,000 per year.
- An earlier Institute of Medicine report estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 preventable deaths occurred each year due to medical errors.
- The costs associated with treating Medicare patients who were victims of medical errors is about $2.9 billion a year.
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