Hospital Errors Put More Patients at Risk

April 4, 2007 — -- Nearly 3 percent of patients in the nation's hospitals risk experiencing hospital errors, a new study finds. And the numbers could be on the rise.

The report further suggests that those patients who experience an error in treatment or care at a hospital have a one in four chance of dying from the mistake.

The study, released Tuesday by the independent health care ratings company HealthGrades, followed more than 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2003 to 2005.

What it found was that 1.16 million preventable "patient safety incidents" occurred over the three years studied, which means that 2.86 percent of all the patients studied experienced a health problem brought about by their hospital stay.

Worse, because of these incidences, 247,662 patients died from potentially preventable problems.

The cost is measured not only in lives but in dollars as well. The excess cost to hospitals was $8.6 billion over the course of the three-year study, with some of the most common occurrences proving to be the most costly.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence -- most notably, a report by the Institute of Medicine in 2006 -- suggesting that hospitals present many patients with avoidable and sometimes deadly health risks.

"Despite the flurry of research, publications and process improvement activity that has occurred since the [Institute of Medicine] report, there is a growing consensus that not much progress has been made, leading to a visible national impact," the study authors write.

The study brings to the forefront a frightening possibility -- that a significant percentage of Americans who are hospitalized every year face health risks from their hospital stay.

The number of Medicare patients suffering from hospital errors "absolutely can be extrapolated" to the U.S. hospital population in general, says Kristin Reed, a spokesperson for HealthGrades and co-author of the study.

"These are patient safety events, so these are events that should not happen, ever."