A new report from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledges that medical errors are common.
Government analysts reviewed between 18,000 and 33,000 medical records of Medicare patients for each year from 2010 to 2013. In 2010, more than one-fourth of all hospitalized Medicare patients suffered preventable injury or harm in the course of their care. In some cases these medical mistakes prompted heroic interventions to save the patients’ life, although too many still died.
To get an idea of just how many problems occurred, consider that the CMS researchers reported that the rate of complications has dropped by 17% since 2010. That drop saved 50,000 lives among Medicare patients alone.
It is certainly good news that fewer patients are dying from health care harm. Medical mistakes are still a serious problem, however. An analysis published last year in the Journal of Patient Safety estimated that between 210,000 and 4440,000 American die as a result of preventable medical episodes every year. That makes medical misadventures the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
