Medical Errors

Johns Hopkins Malpractice Study Reveals Surgical 'Never Events' Occur at Least 4,000 Times Annually

After a cautious and rigorous analysis of national malpractice claims, Johns Hopkins patient safety researchers estimate that a surgeon in the United States leaves a foreign object such as a sponge or a towel inside a patient's body after an operation 39 times a week, ...More
December 19, 2012
Posted in News
Medication Errors from Injectable Drugs Harm 1 Million Inpatients Each Year, Study Finds

A new study published by the journal American Health & Drug Benefits reveals the significant national burden that harmful medication errors, also called preventable adverse drug events (ADEs), associated with injectable medications have on hospitals, patients, and our ...More
December 18, 2012
Posted in News
Saving Lives Could Start at Shift Change by Improving Hospital Handoff Conversations

At hospital shift changes, doctors and nurses exchange crucial information about the patients they're handing over—or at least they strive to. In reality, they might not spend enough time talking about the toughest cases, according to a study led by the University of ...More
November 14, 2012
Posted in News
ECRI Institute Releases Top 10 Health Technology Hazards Report for 2013

While today’s health technology advances provide countless new ways to improve patient care, some also create new opportunities for harm. And with the evolution of healthcare information technology systems such as electronic health records (EHRs), there’s a growing level of ...More
November 5, 2012
Posted in News
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Offers Progress Report on Journey to Eliminate Preventable Harm

Reducing preventable harm in hospitals often starts with small, low-tech steps: brushing the teeth of patients on ventilators; using low-rise beds and socks with safety treads on both sides; completing a surgical time out before mounting a blade on a scalpel. Those small ...More
October 10, 2012
Posted in News
U.S. Performs Worst on Potentially Preventable Death Rates Compared to France, Germany and UK

The United States lags three other industrialized nations—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—in its potentially preventable death rate, and in the pace of improvement in preventing deaths that could have been avoided with timely and effective healthcare, according to a ...More
August 29, 2012
Posted in News
Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute Receives $8.9 Million Patient Safety Grant

Johns Hopkins’ Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality has received an $8.9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the first award given as part of an ambitious new $500 million, 10-year program designed to eliminate all preventable harms that ...More
August 28, 2012
Posted in News
Infections, Medical Errors and Injuries Still Rampant, but Some Hospitals are Safer Than Others

Approximately 400 people die every day because of a preventable hospital error – the equivalent of a jet crashing every day and killing all aboard. In response to this silent epidemic, more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals will now receive an A, B, C, D or F Hospital Safety Score ...More
June 7, 2012
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene, Policies and Practice
Five Effective Ways to Prevent Harm

Each day, people rely on their local hospitals to heal them. But these hospitals are also where thousands will acquire dangerous and potentially lethal infections, adverse drug events, or other harms. ...More
May 31, 2012
Posted in Articles
ECRI Institute PSO Announces Release of Updated Patient Safety Event Collection and Reporting System

ECRI Institute's Patient Safety Organization (PSO) has released a new version of its adverse event collection and reporting system. This release is fully compliant with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Common Formats Version 1.1 and includes the latest ...More
April 10, 2012
Posted in News