California Medical Errors Now on the Books
June 30, 2008 by Becky Ramsey
Filed under Business
California hospitals have been reporting adverse events to the state Department of Public Health since last July, and the numbers are showing that about 100 patients per month are being harmed, sometimes fatally. The University of California – San Diego Medical Center director says that seeing these numbers has encouraged improvements. A California lawmaker says these number might be reason enough to halt reimbursement to hospitals with particular types and numbers of adverse effects.
What do these numbers say to you?
Source:
“Serious patient errors at California hospitals disclosed in state filings” – Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2008
These are most likely just the errors that the hospitals could “prove” were caused by them. The numbers of medication errors alone are staggering. The number or near misses are even more staggering. I used to get hundreds of reports a month on near misses with medications and that was for one medical center.
It is somewhat difficult to understand that there would be such a high number of adverse events with all of the checks, balances and various levels of oversight at medical facilities.