To Make Hospitals Less Deadly, a Dose of Data
By TINA ROSENBERG, NYT
Going to the hospital is supposed to be good for you. But in an alarming number of cases, it isn’t. And often it’s fatal. In fact it is the most dangerous thing most people will do.
Until very recently, health care experts believed that preventable hospital error caused some 98,000 deaths a year in the United States — a figure based on 1984 data. But a new report from the Journal of Patient Safety using updated data holds such error responsible for many more deaths — probably around some 440,000 per year. That’s one-sixth of all deaths nationally, making preventable hospital error the third leading cause of death in the United States. And 10 to 20 times that many people suffer nonlethal but serious harm as a result of hospital mistakes.
Most of us decide which hospital to go to (that is, when we get to decide) with zero data about hospital safety. Information, however, is gradually reaching the public, and it can do more that just help us choose wisely. When patients can judge hospitals on their safety records, hospitals will become safer. Just as publishing health care prices will drive them down, publishing safety information will drive hospital safety up.
In theory, finding this information shouldn’t be a problem. Hospitals began to track errors seriously around 2000. The federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began collecting information on hospital quality in 2003, and since 2005 has been posting information on the website Hospital Compare. Many states have their own websites.
(More here.)
Going to the hospital is supposed to be good for you. But in an alarming number of cases, it isn’t. And often it’s fatal. In fact it is the most dangerous thing most people will do.
Until very recently, health care experts believed that preventable hospital error caused some 98,000 deaths a year in the United States — a figure based on 1984 data. But a new report from the Journal of Patient Safety using updated data holds such error responsible for many more deaths — probably around some 440,000 per year. That’s one-sixth of all deaths nationally, making preventable hospital error the third leading cause of death in the United States. And 10 to 20 times that many people suffer nonlethal but serious harm as a result of hospital mistakes.
Most of us decide which hospital to go to (that is, when we get to decide) with zero data about hospital safety. Information, however, is gradually reaching the public, and it can do more that just help us choose wisely. When patients can judge hospitals on their safety records, hospitals will become safer. Just as publishing health care prices will drive them down, publishing safety information will drive hospital safety up.
In theory, finding this information shouldn’t be a problem. Hospitals began to track errors seriously around 2000. The federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began collecting information on hospital quality in 2003, and since 2005 has been posting information on the website Hospital Compare. Many states have their own websites.
(More here.)
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