According to a Columbia University/Hearst investigative study, more Americans die each month of preventable medical injuries than died in the the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Another study by the Houston Chronicle estimated 98,000 die each year from preventable medical errors and nearly 100,000 more contract serious infections during a hospital stay.
What’s even more frightening is that earlier studies and calls by physicians themselves for improvement in patient safety and a nationwide system to track hospital errors, have apparently gone unheeded. Hospitals have been slow to institute changes and the health care lobby has fought tooth and toenail against a national registry for medical errors.
Part of the problem is the veil of secrecy that surrounds the medical community. Currently only 20 states require some level of reporting of hospital-acquired infections or medical errors.
There are lots of horror stories out there: a 20 year old loses his legs following routine gallbladder surgery after surgeons nicked a large artery, doctors perform a cervical diskectomy instead of the needed lumbar surgery, a 44 year old man dies of cardiac arrest after going to the ER complaining of groin swelling and is operated on for a non-existent hernia by a physician’s assistant without consulting a surgeon…and the list goes on and on. But who is listening to these tragic stories?
Most changes in the laws have only come about by patients becoming activists after enduring a preventable medical error. Several states recently enacted medical error reporting after pressure from activists like Michelle Hereford whose husband died of sepsis which went undiagnosed. With public reporting, patients and regulators are beginning to prod health care providers to adopt procedures to ensure preventable medical mistakes never happen. Reporting is the first step, adopting preventative measures is more important. Even some insurers are putting pressure by refusing to pay hospitals for their medical mistakes. A study in Maryland alone showed insurers paid over $522 million in one year for preventable complications during hospital stays. Hitting the providers in the pocket book may be the most effective way of improving performance.
The patient safety movement is growing but is far from being implemented nationwide. 30 more states must address this problem with legislation and regulations for reporting or there will be more tragic stories of innocent victims of medical malpractice.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
