Study: Hospital Adverse-Event Figures Exceed Previous Estimates

The research, which was published in the journal Health Affairs, used new tools to find that as many as one in three people in the U.S. will experience some type of mistake during a hospital stay. Also, the findings estimate the number of actual hospital errors to be as much as 10 times higher than found by voluntary reporting programs.

Reuters: Errors Still Common In U.S. Hospitals
About one in three people in the United States will encounter some kind of mistake during a hospital stay, U.S. researchers said Thursday. The finding, which is based on a new tool for measuring hospital errors, is about 10 times higher than estimates using older methods, suggesting much work remains in efforts to improve health quality (Steenhuysen, 4/7).

Bloomberg: Hospital Errors Occur 10 Times More Than Reported, Study Finds
A review uncovered 354 so-called adverse events, such as pressure sores, bloodstream infections and medication errors, at three U.S. teaching hospitals. A system designed by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality identified 35 cases at the same facilities while the hospitals' voluntary reporting programs found four, according to the study, published in the journal Health Affairs. An incomplete picture of how often patients are harmed undermines public and private efforts to improve the quality of medical services in the U.S., David Classen, a professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, and his co-authors conclude (Young, 4/7).

Modern Healthcare: Adverse-Event Figures Could Be Far Higher: Study
A new study suggests that the number of adverse events in hospitals could be far higher - as much as 10 times higher - than was previously estimated. Using data from nearly 800 inpatients chosen randomly from three large, tertiary-care hospitals in October 2004, researchers looked for adverse events using three methods: hospitals' voluntary reporting systems, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Patient Safety Indicators, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Global Trigger Tool. ... The study's authors warned that hospitals using voluntary reporting systems alone to assess patient safety "may be seriously misjudging actual performance" (McKinney, 4/7).