Quoted message said:From: "Peter Moran" [email hidden]
Quoted message said:Subject: Ralph Moss looks at new MLM scam
Peter is most imterested in this, and is eager to mention Hulda's name, but
shows no interest in the many needless mistakes and deaths each day. Contary to
what the *gang* has been saying the errors are increasing.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/10/29/hospitals_report_incr
ease_in_errors/
Hospitals report increase in errors
Leading causes: falls and surgical blunders
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff, 10/29/2003
Mistakes reported by Massachusetts hospitals soared by 32 percent during the
past three years, according to a sweeping review of medical errors released
yesterday by the state Department of Public Health.
In the latest period measured by state researchers, stretching from July 1,
2002, through June 30, hospitals reported 757 errors that resulted in injury to
patients, including 65 deaths. That compares with 574 mistakes in 2000.
Falls by patients that could have been prevented were the leading cause of
injury, accounting for half of the incidents, but hospitals also reported
operations being performed on the wrong limb or organ and episodes in which
sponges or surgical tools were mistakenly left inside patients.
Authors of the report and a hospital trade association said the increase in
error reports reflects greater vigilance by medical centers in reporting their
mistakes, rather than a true spike in errors.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association disputed that account, contending that
hospital workers are spread too thin to give quality care to patients who are
increasingly sicker and older.
A Tufts University School of Medicine professor who has studied issues of
hospital quality for two decades said the increase was probably due to a
combination of both factors.
"We are only now starting to measure errors, and we're also putting into place
reporting systems that more likely guarantee anonymity for people reporting
mistakes and that's all good," said Dr. Harry Selker. "But it's not
inconceivable to me that there are care factors contributing to increased
errors as well. As you stretch nurses thinner and thinner and the patients come
in faster and faster, there's no doubt greater chance for errors."
The report comes at a time when hospitals are weathering intense scrutiny over
the quality of care they provide, with one landmark national study estimating
that as many as 98,000 people each year die because of mistakes within the
health-care system.
Just six weeks ago, state investigators released details of four cases at
Children's Hospital Boston that raised significant issues involving
communication and accountability. In three of those cases, children died.
The movement in Massachusetts to enhance patient care and the tracking of
errors traces back to the 1994 death of Boston Globe health columnist Betsy
Lehman, who was killed by overdoses of chemotherapy while being treated at
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said Nancy Ridley, an assistant commissioner at
the Department of Public Health.
"That event sent a shot around the world as far as realizing that some of the
most common problems can occur in our best institutions and that the medical
world needed to do something about those problems," Ridley said.
One solution was an attempt to figure out just how severe the problems really
are. The result is improvements in the error reporting system adopted by the
state in the mid-1990s, requiring hospitals and long-term care facilities such
as nursing homes to report mistakes. Another component of the initiative is a
mechanism for consumer complaints.
At long-term care facilities, the errors reported by institutions and consumers
increased by 14 percent from 10,288 in 1996 to 11,770 in 2002, with almost all
of that increase in the first two years. Hospitals had a 76 percent jump during
that period in errors reported by facilities and consumers.
"Most of the increase in reports we receive from hospitals is a function of
hospitals being more aware of their reporting responsibilities," said Paul
Dreyer, deputy director of the Bureau of Health Quality Management.
That view was echoed by a spokesman for the Massachusetts Hospital Association
who said the organization had "made a very concerted effort" to encourage
members to report mistakes and to move swiftly to improve quality rather than
assigning blame.
Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 22,000 nurses, said medical
workers are facing unrealistic demands. Nurses are routinely forced to care for
six or eight patients when they should be assigned to no more than four, said
Karen Higgins, the group's president.