From Deseret News archives:
Protecting patients: Hospitals wrestle with reporting and fixing medical mistakes
And despite offering juicy enticements confidentiality and no penalties for problems total reports from Utah's 53 hospitals and 30 surgical centers average a paltry 35 "sentinel events" a year. Those, by definition, are the ones that kill or cause permanent major injury.
The facilities need not tell the state about lesser events, even those that are life-threatening or extremely costly.
Nobody, including patient safety experts, believes that number comes close to a real reckoning of sentinel events.
Utah Department of Health patient safety pointwoman Iona Thraen says the voluntary self-reports capture about one-tenth of actual cases. A national patient safety assessment by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates Utah hospitals would average about 300 deaths a year caused by "medical harm," which includes both human error and unforeseen events that complicate care or hurt patients in the course of treatment.
"Health care and hospitals are between the fourth and sixth cause of preventable death in the United States responsible for more deaths than the entire AIDS epidemic, or breast cancer or all motor vehicle accidents in a year," says James, Intermountain Healthcare's vice president of medical research.
Still, hospitals and their staffs "do far more good than bad. It's just that treatment powerful enough to heal can also harm, and it's often a thin line between," says James, also executive director of the Institute for Health Care Delivery Research, and who helped produce the IOM's unnerving 1999 "To Err Is Human" report.
Despite lack of reporting, Utah is considered a patient safety leader and innovator. And this, too, is perplexing but true: Those hospitals and surgical centers that report the most sentinel events may provide the best care. At least they're aware of their patient safety issues, says Dr. Jonathan Nebeker, associate director of the SL Informatics Decision Enhancement and Surveillance Center at the VA medical center.
Comments
- Soccer MVPs know how to win 1:56 a.m.
- Alta's Ohai is Ms. Soccer 2009 1:56 a.m.
- High school soccer: Past MVPs 1:37 a.m.
- Senators want food tax restored 1:27 a.m.
- Utah women lag in higher education 1:16 a.m.
- Hatch empathizes with Muslims 1:14 a.m.
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP 1:13 a.m.
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses 1:12 a.m.
- Party insiders may take on Bennett 1:11 a.m.
- Input sought on nondiscrimination 1:11 a.m.
- TCU showdown has big implications
- Seniors helped BYU regroup
- Lambert surprisingly tops news
- Hope for single moms
- Bystanders framed for child porn
- Korver and Miles to be evaluated
- Soccer MVPs know how to win
- Utah Jazz Extra: Whose hot/not
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP
- Newhouse Hotel, an explosive end
- House passes health care bill
228 - TCU showdown has big implications
183 - Lobo suspended
182 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
154 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
118 - Thousands protest health bill
114 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
97 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John...
Why do so many people live so close to refineries in Utah and elsewhere?
Sounds like a good option if you can't or won't switch to AT&T for the...
I worked with and around Bill Sederburg for 5 years while he was at...
hand. He needs to work on his moves to the basket and rebounding. Lateral...
play Fez or Koufos tonight. He went with a smaller line up and Boozer, Okur...
I've met Bennett before and he is a nice man. He also knows the Constitution...
That's never been a secret. Everyone will pay for it except those that don't...
I agree with NonMormon. I am active LDS, and I enjoy Ash's articles, and I...
I kept saying don't resign Milsap, especially after Portland offered that...
BYU is the slowest team that has ever been in the top 25. Utah will put up a...
i think u have the cowboys ranked too low! at least an A- LOL nice work!



You can be the first to comment on this story.