• 23
  • January
    2012

 

Over the past several years, in an effort to reduce preventable harm experienced by hospital patients, many states have taken legislative steps to ensure that events causing harm are publicly reported. Despite new legislation, hospital accidents and errors causing patient harm continue to go unreported and uncorrected. A new study, commissioned by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shows that hospital employees report only one out of seven incidents that harm hospitalized Medicare patients.

Although the vast majority of hospitals have a system for hospital staff to inform administrators of "adverse events," such as medication errors and hospital-borne infections, there is an alarming amount of incidents that go unreported.

The reason for this continued negligence is more correctable than one might believe. As the New York Times reports, in most cases hospital employees are either unaware of a harmful error, or uninformed as to what qualifies as a reportable event. A necessary step in correcting hospital dangers and inefficiencies is the establishment of an objective reporting system, which identifies the events that should be reported, and gives staff the ability to do so.

Despite the conditional requirement that hospitals being paid under Medicare must track and correct harmful errors, the reality is that such errors are rarely identified and reported. In the rare case that such errors are reported, hospitals almost never make changes to harmful policies and practices. Significant steps must be taken to ensure that avoidable medical malpractice incidents are being prevented. In order for patients to receive the quality of care they deserve, it is imperative that hospitals establish clearer and more consistent systems for reporting adverse events.