• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Report: Patients in six nations note high error rates

Quality Improvement Monitor, November 10, 2005

One-third of U.S. patients with health problems reported experiencing medical, medication, or test errors, the highest of any nation, according to a study released November 3.

The Commonwealth Fund study evaluated healthcare access, safety, and coordination in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Thirty-four percent of U.S. survey participants reported at least one of four types of errors:

• Experiencing a medical mistake in treatment
• Receiving the wrong medication or dose
• Receiving incorrect test results
• Experiencing delays in test results

About half of the U.S. patients seeing four or more physicians reported at least one of the errors, pointing toward lapses in communication during transitions in care, a press release said. In all six countries, one-third or more of recently hospitalized patients reported a failure to coordinate care during discharge from the hospital.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive