One out of every seven hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries experiences an “adverse event,” which means the patient is harmed as a result of medical care. That’s according to a study released today [1] by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general.
The “adverse events” contribute to an estimated 15,000 patient deaths [2] each month and add at least $4.4 billion [3] to the government’s annual Medicare expenses, the report projected. These findings were based on a nationally representative random sample taken from the nearly 1 million Medicare beneficiaries discharged from hospitals in October 2008.
via propublica.org