Medical errors as common in doctors’ clinics as in hospitals

Medical Errors Rise In Outpatient Settings

Medical errors are just as likely to happen in doctors' clinics and physicians' offices as well as in hospitals where they are thought to happen more often.

This is the result of a new study that looked at the rate of malpractice claim payments in the United States from 2005 to 2009. That rate closely mirrors the rate of medical errors that happen in health care facilities.

According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, the basis of the study, roughly 50 percent of medical malpractice payments involve patients who are cared for outside the hospital setting.

Numerous past studies have looked almost solely on the prevalence of medical errors in hospitals which have now implemented such measures as checklists to reduce mistakes.

But as the study authors noted, "invasive and high-technology diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are increasingly being performed in the outpatient setting." Therefore, using malpractice payments as a measure, they compared the incidence of medical errors in inpatient and outpatient settings.

"We were actually very surprised by that finding," study author Dr. Tara Bishop of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York told Reuters.

"I hope it's a wake-up call for the medical community and for patients, so we can start working on ways to solve these problems," Bishop added.

The Institute of Medicine reported back in 1999 that more than 98,000 Americans are killed due to medical errors each year. These preventable mistakes have persisted despite the many measures instituted to prevent them, according to patient groups.

Medical errors found in the 2009 study cost more than $3.3 billion in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday June 15 2011, 7:04 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0