Medical Errors Edging up in US, Study Finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) May 02 - Hospital-acquired infections are
worsening in the United States, according to a report issued on Monday.
And the problem of such infections provides a good indication of which
hospitals are prone to errors overall, the report, from Colorado-based
Health Grades Inc, finds.

"Hospital-acquired infection rates worsened by approximately 20% from
2000 to 2003 and accounted for 9552 deaths and $2.60 billion -- almost
30% of the total excess cost related to the patient safety incidents,"
the company said in its report.

Such infections include antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including
staphylococcus and streptococcus infections.

Health Grades, which evaluates the quality of hospitals, physicians and
nursing homes, found more than 300,000 patients died after experiencing
an adverse, nosocomial incident in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The report that
found more than 80% of these deaths could be attributed to the incident.

"Hospital-acquired infections correlated most highly with overall
performance and performance on the other 12 patient safety incidents,
suggesting that hospital-acquired infection rates could be used as a
proxy of overall hospital patient safety," the report reads.

But many hospitals emerged with good overall records on patient safety,
the report found. These hospitals seem to have a "culture of safety,"
said Health Grades Vice President of Medical Affairs Dr. Samantha Collier.

"A 'culture of safety' requires rapid identification of errors and root
causes, and the successful implementation of improvement strategies --
which can only be achieved with strong leadership, critical thinking,
and commitment to excellence," Collier added in a statement.

"For patients, it's important to know which hospitals meet this
standard, as they are nearly 200% less likely to have an incident at
hospitals in the top 10%," according to the Health Grades study.

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