A recent study published in the April issue of Health Affairs has found that many errors made in U.S. hospitals are overlooked due to a flawed system of detecting mistakes.
For the study, researchers used the Global Trigger Tool, a new method in which a complete review of hospital medical records is performed. They found that the actual rate of error is ten times higher than suggested by earlier methods of error detection.
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recommends voluntary error reporting systems or coding systems that use patient charts to discover mistakes. However, these methods are not nearly as thorough as the Global Trigger Tool.
The research team used both methods when looking at roughly 800 patient records. They found that while the methods recommended by the AHRQ found only 35 errors within the evaluated charts, the Global Trigger Tool found 354 mistakes.
The most frequent mistakes found within the charts were medication errors, with surgical and non-surgical procedure errors and infection errors as the second and third most common mistakes.
Serious hospital errors can cause serious harm and even death. If you or a loved one was seriously hurt or died as a result of doctor or hospital negligence, call or email the injury attorneys at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today for a free consultation. We have helped clients with Brooklyn hospital malpractice, Bronx hospital malpractice, Queens hospital malpractice, Manhattan hospital malpractice and Long Island hospital malpractice fight for the justice they deserve.
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