Monday, August 23, 2010
Scissors Left in Patient ((photo: Rob Griffith, AP)
As if health care wasn’t costly enough in the United States, from the treatment of illnesses and injuries patients bring with them into the doctor’s office, there’s the cost of mistakes made by medical professionals. One assessment has pegged the expense of medical errors—of which there are about 1.5 million a year—at $19.5 billion, or $13,000 per error, based on data collected from 2008. Medical errors also caused more than 2,500 deaths and more than 10 million missed work days.
The study, sponsored by the Society of Actuaries’ Health Section, determined that 87% of this cost, or $17 billion, “was a direct increase in the medical costs of providing inpatient, outpatient, and prescription drug services” to American victims of errors. Another $1.4 billion in indirect costs occurred from patients dying as a result of mistakes, and the country experienced about $1.1 billion in lost productivity stemming from short-term disability claims that arose from medical errors.
The most costly errors were pressure ulcers from staying in one position too long ($3.9 billion) and postoperative infections ($3.7 billion).
-Noel Brinkerhoff
The Economic Measurement of Medical Errors (Milliman) (pdf)
Charts (Milliman) (pdf)
U.S. Inaction Lets Look-Alike Tubes Kill Patients (by Gardiner Harris, New York Times)
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