Personal Injury Law

In Three Years, Medical Errors Cost Medicare $8.8 Billion

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

According to a recent HealthGrades study of patient care in hospitals, the past three years of medical errors have cost the Medicare system more than $8.8 billion dollars. Additionally, the study found that hospital safety problems caused 238,337 preventable deaths to patients. Bed sores, failure to rescue, and respiratory failure were the most common cause of preventable death, affecting nearly 2 out of 3 patients. Other preventable malpractice errors included foreign bodies left in the patient during a procedure, anesthesia errors, hospital infections, and accidental lacerations.

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Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).