The New England Journal of Medicine has recently published an article titled “Temporal Trends in Rates of Patient Harm Resulting from Medical Care.” This article was conducted by Christopher Landrigan and 5 other researches, appeared in the November 25, 2010, edition and you can download and view it at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa1004404
The article explores a random sample of 10 hospitals located in the state of North Carolina in the U.S. A total of 2,341 patients were looked at from this sample and 588 of them had what was identified as a harm meaning that the patient was somehow harmed as a result of medical procedures, medications, or something else that was performed or given during their care.
“Of 588 harms that were identified, 245 (41.7%) were temporary harms requiring intervention… 251 (42.7%) were temporary harms requiring initial or prolonged hospitalization. An additional 17 harms (2.9%) were permanent, 50 (8.5%) were life-threatening, and 14 (2.4%) caused or contributed to a patient’s death.”
In addition 364 of the 588 harms (63.1%) were reported as preventable.
“Of the identified preventable harms, 13 caused permanent harm, 35 were life-threatening, and 9 caused or contributed to a patient’s death.”
The articled concludes by stating
“Harm to patients resulting from medical care was common in North Carolina, and the rate of harm did not appear to decrease significantly during a 6-year period ending in December 2007, despite substantial national attention and allocation of resources to improve the safety of care.”
While it is clear that patient harm is problem in North Carolina this study did not explore other states in the U.S. and was limited to hospitals. It would seem that patient harm is similar in other U.S. states but of course further evidence would be needed to support or refute this.
That’s really interesting. I wonder what the statistics are for Texas. I also have to remember, though, the much larger number of people who have been successfully treated by medical care.