t's widely acknowledged that millions of Americans are negatively impacted by their lack of health care insurance. Though one of the goals of current health care reforms is to help everyone get insurance coverage, a problem that is arguably even more dangerous is largely ignored by reformers: medical negligence and preventable error.
Last summer, a Hearst media investigation found that 200,000 Americans die each year from medical errors and hospital-acquired infections. By contrast, a 2009 Harvard Medical School study found that 45,000 die annually because they have no health insurance.
An analysis of current health care reform proposals finds that Congress doesn't plan to address the widespread problem of preventable medical errors in a significant way.
Ten years ago, a landmark federal study, "To Err is Human," recommended a couple of basic but profound changes in the way the medical industry handles medical errors: mandatory reporting of medical errors followed by systemic changes, based on the error reports, to help prevent future errors.
None of the current proposed health care bills stipulate that error reporting become mandatory. Without that stipulation, steps toward real reform of the error-plagued medical system remain vague.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.7 million people suffer infections acquired in hospitals and from other healthcare providers each year, with 99,000 killed annually by these infections.
-32 percent of healthcare-acquired infections are urinary tract infections
-22 percent are infections of surgical sites
-15 percent are lung infections (pneumonia)
-14 percent are infections of the bloodstream
Right now, only 20 states and Washington D.C. require medical error reporting that can lead to changes in procedures making healthcare safer.
Article provided by Freidin Dobrinsky | Personal Injury Lawyers
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