ot: Errors kill 15,000 aged hospital patients a month in US: HHS OIG study

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Errors kill 15,000 aged patients a month: study

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AF5SM20101116

(Reuters) - Mistakes and unavoidable problems kill an estimated 15,000

elderly U.S. patients every month in hospitals, U.S. government

investigators reported on Tuesday.

More than 13 percent of patients covered by Medicare, the government

health insurance for the elderly, or about 134,000 people monthly have

some sort of so-called adverse event each month. These include mistakes

such as surgical errors or sometimes unavoidable problems such as an

infection spread in the hospital, or patients having their blood sugar

fall to unusually low levels.

The new numbers, which total about 180,000 deaths a year, were presented

in a report by the Office of Inspector General at the Health and Human

Services Department [here

<http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00090.pdf>]. They support

findings of a landmark Institute of Medicine report in 2000 that said up

to 98,000 Americans died every year because of medical errors...

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