HealthGrades Sixth Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study

HeathGrades studies Medicare patient care in our nation’s hospitals based on 15 indicators of patient safety.   

Here are some highlights from the 2009 report representing data from 2005 -2007:

· There were 913,215 total patient safety events among 864,765 Medicare beneficiarieswhich represents 2.3 percent of the nearly 38 million Medicare hospitalizations.

· These patient safety events were associated with over $6.9 billion of excess cost.

· The overall incidence rate remained virtually unchanged compared to last year’s study(except the failure to rescue indicator for which there were major methodological changes).

· Eight indicators showed improvement over the course of the study.  Complications of anesthesia, death in low mortality DRGs, failure to rescue, iatrogenic pneumothorax, selected infections due to medical care, post-operative hip fracture, postoperativehemorrhage or hematoma, and transfusion reaction showed improvementranging from 2.3 percent to 52.0 percent.These eight indicators accounted for 14.5 percent of the total patient safety eventsduring the study period.

· Seven indicators worsened over the course of the study. Decubitus ulcer (bed sores), post-operative physiological and metabolic derangements,post-operative respiratory failure, post-operative pulmonary embolism (potentially fatalblood clots forming in the lungs) or deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the legs), postoperativesepsis, post-operative abdominal wound dehiscence, and accidental punctureor laceration all worsened with changes ranging from a one-percent increase in events to23.4 percent.These seven indicators accounted for 85.5 percent of the total patient safety eventsduring the study period.

Other interesting data:

· There were 97.755 actual inhospital deaths that occurred among patients who experienced one or more of the 15 patient safety events.

· 92,882 of these deaths could be directly attributable to a patient safety event.

· Hospitals that had received a Patient Safety Excellence Award had a 43% lower risk of experiencing patient safety incidents.

· If all hospitals had performed at the same level as the award winners, 22,771 deaths could have potentially been avoided and $2.0 billion would have been saved.

· Award winners in Tennessee are Baptist Riverside, Cenntennial, Memorial (Chattanooga), Northcrest (Springfield), St. Thomas, Vanderbilt and Williamson Medical Center.