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Report: Adverse Events in Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries
More than one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients experienced an adverse event caused by their hospital stay, according to new research from the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Another 13.5 percent of Medicare patients received care that caused temporary harm, said the report, Adverse Events in Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries. Medication errors were the main cause in one-third of the cases studied. The result, reported the New York Times, was that the unexpected adverse events added at least $4.4 billion a year to government health costs and contributed to the deaths of about 180,000 patients a year.
Medication Errors
The report centers on a study that tested a random sample of 780 hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries discharged in October 2008, which showed that an estimated 13.5 percent of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries experienced adverse events during their hospital stays. Of the adverse events identified, the highest proportion of causes was medication-related, at 31%. Medication errors were cited as the cause of 58% of the deaths studied.
The most common type of medication-related death (five deaths) involved excessive bleeding from blood-thinning medication. The two other medication-related deaths involved inadequate insulin management resulting in hypoglycemic coma and respiratory failure resulting from over sedation.
Of the five non-medication-related deaths, two were from bloodstream infections; two involved aspiration (which led to pneumonia and cardiac arrest, respectively); and the other involved a ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Of the cases reviewed, medication errors were cited as cause for harm that resulted in:
- Excessive bleeding
- Delirium or change in mental status
- Hypoglycemic event
- Acute renal insufficiency (kidney failure)
- Severe hypotension
- Respiratory complications
- Severe allergic reactions
- Thrush and other opportunistic infection
- Allergic reaction or side effect related to skin
- Gastrointestinal complication
- Dysrhythmia
- Severe headache or dizziness
- Allergic reaction to blood or related products
- Other events related to medication