MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND MEDICARE: ONE IN SEVEN HARMED
People present to hospitals every day in Chicago and around the world with the expectation of receiving quality care and not suffering complications from medical malpractice at the hands of their doctors, nurses and technicians. Sadly, 98,000 people a year die from medical mistakes. A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that 1.5 percent of Medicare patients are harmed as a result of medical errors and suffer a complication that contributes to their death. As part of the new health care law, programs are being implemented to improve quality of care and reduce health care costs. Some projects focus on assisting primary care physicians to coordinate with the physicians who practice more specialized medicine to ensure that a patient does not receive fragmented medical care.
The HHS report analyzed the records of 780 Medicare patients hospitalized in October 2008. The report analyzed both medical mistakes and unavoidable adverse events. In October of 2008, 134,000 Medicare patients suffered at least one adverse event while hospitalized. Of these events, a whopping 44 percent were preventable.
