| About 40% of all patients admitted to the hospital each year are then injured by the care they receive there. That’s 15 million people a year. See Donald M. Berwick, “Mont Sainte-Victoire,” plenary speech at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 18th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care, 12 December 2006. |
May 14, 2010
Hospital Medical Errors Affect 40% of Patients
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May 13, 2010
May 12, 2010
Medical Errors: Ouch!
| “Sometimes when the doctor gallops in on his powerful stallion to save the day, you get run over by his horse.” Elizabeth L. Bewley, May 2010. |
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May 11, 2010
Avoid Medical Errors
| “Don’t go to the hospital alone, if you can possibly avoid it.” Melinda Beck, “Bedside Manner: Advocating for a Relative in the Hospital,” Wall Street Journal, 28 October 2008. In other words, take someone with you who can ask questions and advocate for you when you can’t do it yourself. |
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May 10, 2010
Is Health Care Getting Safer?
Myth or Fact: Health care gets safer every year.Fact: “Distressingly, measures of patient safety . . . indicate not only a lack of improvement but also, in fact, a decline of almost 1 percent” in each of the most recent six years. “National Healthcare Quality Report 2008,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, March 2009. |
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Overview: Hospital Medical Errors
| Despite good intentions, medical errors in hospitals are common. One study concluded, “medical errors in U.S. hospitals contributed to almost 600,000 deaths” over three years. See Paul Davies, “Fatal Medical Errors Said To Be More Widespread,” Wall Street Journal, 27 July 2004. |
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