HCTW news brief: Taking a new approach to medical errors
Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, August 28, 2009
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The rate of adverse events among hospitalized patients has risen by about 1% each of the last six years, according to a report issued in May by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The increase is partly caused by the rise in hospital-acquired infections.
The traditional response of many hospitals to patient errors has been a wall of silence, in large part due to fears that saying something will lead to lawsuits. But a growing trend among hospitals is to say sorry, to own up to medical errors, and to involve patients in working to ensure such errors do not happen again.
One hospital trying this approach is the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, which set up a specialized service in 2004 to help staff communicate with patients and families when things go wrong. The Medical Center has had a policy of full disclosure, apology, and swift financial settlement since 2006. And over the past four years, the number of lawsuits has dropped by 40% compared to the period between 1999 and 2004, even though the number of procedures increased by 23%.
To read more about how hospitals are handling medical errors, click here.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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