Hospital stays in US show 25% harm rate

WASHINGTON: One in four older Americans covered by Medicare had some type of temporary or lasting harm during hospital stays before the Covid19 pandemic, government investigators said in an oversight report published yesterday.

The report from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspectorgeneral said 12% of patients had ‘‘adverse events’’ that mainly led to longer hospital stays but also permanent harm, death, or required lifesaving intervention. Another 13% had temporary issues that could have caused further complications had hospital staff not acted.

Investigators reviewed the medical records of 770 Medicare patients discharged from 629 hospitals in 2018 to formulate a national rate on how often patients were harmed, whether preventable or not. An earlier Inspectorgeneral review published in 2010 found 27% of patients experienced some type of harm — an investigation that led to new patient safety efforts and incentives.

The incremental improvement follows an intense focus on patient safety since at least 1999 when the thenInstitute of Medicine published To Err is Human, a landmark report that estimated up to 98,000 deaths per year could be due to medical errors. Initiatives have since sought to improve patient safety by limiting medical errors, reducing medication mixups and holding hospitals with a poor record of patient safety accountable through Medicare’s programme to dock the pay of the worst performers on a list of safety measures.

While Inspectorgeneral investigators noted improvements in certain safety measures, officials said the 25% harm rate is concerning and deserves renewed attention from hospitals and two federal agencies that oversee patient safety: the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. — TCA