Report: Oregon hospital errors killed 24 people
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon hospitals reported making dozens of serious errors last year, 24 of them fatal.
In reports to a state commission, the hospitals said one person died of a drug overdose, and several others died of fatal falls and infections - four killed by staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics, a growing problem nationwide.
The study was released Tuesday by the Oregon Patient Safety Commission, created in 2003 to gather information about what kinds of mistakes are hurting patients and what causes them.
The annual reports - this was the second - aren't designed to catalog all errors, just the major ones.
The reports are voluntary, although 54 of the state's 57 acute-care hospitals report and a 55th will begin reporting this year. The specifics of a case can't be used in court or disclosed publicly, and patients aren't prevented from suing.
Eighty-three cases were reported in 2007, 18 more than in 2006.
The main kinds of mistakes reported include 15 cases of objects being left inside patients after treatments - mostly surgical sponges - and eight cases of a medical procedure done on the wrong body part. Those were roughly as common as medication errors, with 10 mistakes reported.
The main causes of problems reported were poor communication and inadequate procedures or policies for treatments.
The commission gets reports only from hospitals, but the process eventually will apply also to nursing homes, pharmacies and outpatient surgery centers.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
In reports to a state commission, the hospitals said one person died of a drug overdose, and several others died of fatal falls and infections - four killed by staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics, a growing problem nationwide.
The study was released Tuesday by the Oregon Patient Safety Commission, created in 2003 to gather information about what kinds of mistakes are hurting patients and what causes them.
The annual reports - this was the second - aren't designed to catalog all errors, just the major ones.
The reports are voluntary, although 54 of the state's 57 acute-care hospitals report and a 55th will begin reporting this year. The specifics of a case can't be used in court or disclosed publicly, and patients aren't prevented from suing.
Eighty-three cases were reported in 2007, 18 more than in 2006.
The main kinds of mistakes reported include 15 cases of objects being left inside patients after treatments - mostly surgical sponges - and eight cases of a medical procedure done on the wrong body part. Those were roughly as common as medication errors, with 10 mistakes reported.
The main causes of problems reported were poor communication and inadequate procedures or policies for treatments.
The commission gets reports only from hospitals, but the process eventually will apply also to nursing homes, pharmacies and outpatient surgery centers.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
