Dive Brief:
- The number of medical errors dropped by 28% between 2004 and 2014, new research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows.
- The analysis, based on medical malpractice payment reports, also shows a constant downward trend each year since 2013, when the rate edged up slightly.
- A recent study published in The BMJ found that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.
Dive Insight:
The total number of medical malpractice payment reports dropped from 17,641 in 2004 to 12,699 in 2014, according to the report. Roughly 80% of payouts were for treatment, diagnostic, and procedure-related errors.
Overall quality of care also improved over the period — evidenced by improvements in about 60% of measures for quality, patient safety, effective treatment, and healthy living as well as 80% of patient-centered measures.
Gaps in care between different patient populations also improved, including disparities between low- and high-income pediatric patients with accidental puncture or laceration during surgery; black and white patients for postoperative respiratory failure; and Hispanic and non-Hispanic white adults for postoperative catheter-related urinary tract infections.
The report also shows some improvement in preventable adverse drug events (ADE). For example, about 8.5% of hospital patients receiving hypoglycemic agents had an ADE in 2013, down from about 10% in 2009. However, the number of patients taking warfarin who had an ADE rose slightly from about 4.5% to 5% during the same period.
About 400,000 preventable ADEs occur in hospitals each year, at a cost of $3.5 billion in 2006 dollars, according to AHRQ.