Posted on 07/27/2004 4:28:54 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors, a company said on Tuesday in an estimate that doubles previous figures.
Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.
"The HealthGrades study shows that the IOM report may have underestimated the number of deaths due to medical errors, and, moreover, that there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years," said Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at the company.
The company, which rates hospitals based on a variety of criteria and provides information to insurers and health plans, said its researchers looked at three years of Medicare data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
"This Medicare population represented approximately 45 percent of all hospital admissions (excluding obstetric patients) in the U.S. from 2000 to 2002," the company said in a statement.
HealthGrades included as mistakes failure to rescue dying patients and the death of low-risk patients from infections -- neither of which the Institute of Medicine report included.
It said it found about 1.14 million "patient-safety incidents" occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations.
"Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 263,864, or 81 percent, of these deaths were directly attributable to the incidents," it added.
"One in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2002 and experienced a patient-safety incident died."
The U.S. government said it is trying to spearhead a move to get hospitals and clinics to use electronic databases and prescribing methods. The Institute of Medicine report said many deaths were due to medication prescribing errors or to errors in delivering medications.
"If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual list of leading causes of death included medical errors, it would show up as number six, ahead of diabetes, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and renal disease," Collier said.
Well? Are they dying or not? Typical Reuters hype and hysteria. And the march towards socialized medicine goose-steps onward.
Has John Edwards repealed his decision to be Kerry's running mate yet?
Then again, there's always room for a Hillary slam.
I'd be dead before I got out of bed.
If I could get out of bed.
At any rate, the guy who occupied the Oval Office for eight years tried to blame all sorts of deaths on mere mistakes...saying government ought to be more involved.
Quietly, about 4 or 5 months later, that study/stats were announced to be FLAWED. And it was said REAL quietly. I never heard the perjurer bring up those stats again.
A physician I know was telling me about his friend's invention that should save about 20,000 lives per year. It's a combination skin moisterizer and hand sanitizer liquid. It seems that lots of medical personnel don't wash their hands between patients, because if they did their hands would get all chapped from being washed so often. So they bring germs from one patient to another in hospital settings
I thought of that. My kid is in the medical field and has to wash hand all the time. We can't find a solution to the chapped hands issue. It's a huge problem. Gloves?
Gloves don't work without handwashing. I'm a hospital nurse, and we wash hands or use sanitizer before touching a patient and after we finish. It's essential.
On the other hand, when was the last time your doctor washed his hands before touching you?
Think about it.
I rarely go to the doctor, but you are right, he never washes his hands in front of me. That's interesting about gloves. Why won't they work?
what do you call a doctor who finished LAST in his class???
DOCTOR
Not all that surprising. Recently I had to get some stitches (chain link fence 1, toe 0) and told the nurse that I was allergic to neosporin. After the physician's assistant stitched me up he opened up a tube and was about to put some neosporin on the wound before I asked him what was in the tube and stopped him. The ink wasn't even dry on the form which said I was allergic to it.
I have an engineering degree. I was a non-traditional student. So many younger students were so worried about their GPA. I told them, when was the last time you asked you doctor what his GPA was in med school. Puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?
Wow, good you were viligant.
195,000 new democrat voters.
There is no way to prevent it. The hands need to be scrubbed. Period.
Wow, using admittedly simplistic math, that makes going to the hospital at least four times more deadly than driving.
I told her she could no longer come into my wife's room. I then had it put on her chart that she could receive no meds without my approval. I told the doctor about it and he just shook his head as if exasperated by it all.
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