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By Making Fewer Mistakes, Hospitals Have Saved 50,000 Lives Since 2010

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

Medical errors in hospitals declined by 17 percent between 2010 and 2013, according to a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The study claims the reduction has saved 50,000 lives over the three-year period, as well as $12 billion in healthcare costs.

It’s not clear exactly why the decline occurred, but HHS says the last three years have seen a concerted effort by hospitals throughout the country to reduce adverse events. The effort was spurred in part by Medicare incentives under the Affordable Care Act, as well as other HHS initiatives like Partnership For Patients, which targets a specific set of hospital-acquired conditions for reductions.

“Today’s results are welcome news for patients and their families,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement on Monday. “These data represent significant progress in improving the quality of care that patients receive while spending our health care dollars more wisely. HHS will work with partners across the country to continue to build on this progress.”

According to government estimates, more than 180,000 people die every year because of “hospital-acquired conditions.” These are mostly infections acquired during treatment, or the consequence of easily avoidable complications arising from surgery or from mistakes in administering medication. In the past, hospitals lacked the incentive to cut down on medical errors. In fact, a 2013 study showed that hospitals actually profit from making surgical mistakes. Hospitals make about $30,000 more from the patients whose procedures result in at least one complication than they do from patients who don’t have any issues.

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HHS says there are now more incentives to reduce errors, and this has resulted in 1.3 million fewer incidents of harm in 2011, 2012, and 2013 when compared to 2010. Reductions have decreased exponentially each year. Almost 35,000 fewer patients died in hospitals in 2013 alone, and approximately 800,000 fewer incidents of harm occurred, saving approximately $8 billion.

“Never before have we been able to bring so many hospitals, clinicians and experts together to share in a common goal — improving patient care,” Rich Umbdenstock, the president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a statement. “We have built an ‘infrastructure of improvement’ that will aid hospitals and the health care field for years to come and has spurred the results you see today.”

Still the reduction falls short of the administration’s 2010 goal of reducing hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent over three years. The reduction shown in the HHS report means that one in ten hospital patients still experienced one or more conditions resulting from medical errors in 2013.

“A 17 percent reduction in hospital-acquired conditions is a big deal, but it’s only a start,” Burnell said at a conference in Baltimore on Tuesday. “No American should ever lose his or her life, or spend the holidays in the hospital because of a condition that could have been prevented.”