Wednesday, March 5, 2014

One Third of Skilled Nursing Patients Harmed in Treatment

One-in-three patients in skilled nursing facilities suffered a medication error, infection or some other type of harm related to their treatment, according to a government report released today that underscores the widespread nature of the country’s patient harm problem.

Doctors who reviewed the patients’ records determined that  59 percent of the errors and injuries were preventable.   More than half of those harmed had to be readmitted to the hospital at an estimated cost of $208 million for the month studied — about 2 percent of Medicare’s total inpatient spending.

Patient safety experts told ProPublica they were alarmed because the frequency of people harmed under skilled nursing care exceeds that of hospitals, where medical errors receive the most attention.
“(The report) tells us what many of us have suspected ­­– there are vast areas of health care where the field of patient safety has not matured,” said Dr. Marty Makary, a physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore who researches health care quality.

The study by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) focused on skilled nursing care – treatment in nursing homes for up to 35 days after a patient was discharged from an acute care hospital. Doctors working with the inspector general’s office reviewed medical records of 653 randomly selected Medicare patients from more than 600 facilities.

The doctors found that 22 percent of patients suffered events that caused lasting harm, and another 11 percent were temporarily harmed. In 1.5 percent of cases the patient died because of poor care, the report said. Though many who died had multiple illnesses, they had been expected to survive.

The injuries and deaths were caused by substandard treatment, inadequate monitoring, delays or the failure to provide needed care, the study found. The deaths involved problems such as preventable blood clots, fluid imbalances, excessive bleeding from blood-thinning medications and kidney failure.

Full Article and Source:
One Third of Skilled Nursing Patients Harmed in Treatment

See Also:
Find Nursing Home Problems in Your State

Read the report from the Department of Human Health Services:  "Adverse Events in Skilled Nursing Facilities:  National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries"

5 comments:

Thelma said...

Not so shocking, because we've been hearing stories for a long time, leading up to this new revelation.

Ron said...

That's pretty scary. Thank you for posting, NASGA.

Family of WWII Veteran said...

True.

See Abreachoftrust.com about WWII Veteran vs Humana Ins vs Catholic Chicago Hospital SNU case manager social worker et al.

Keep your eyes on A Breach of Trust for new information as well as future federal court documents that you need to read to believe to see what happens to we the people with Medicare DisAdvantage Plans especially with information on Medicare recipients.

Dirty tricks of hospital management level all claiming and hiding behind government immunities -

I strongly suggest: get educated now, while you can is my warning to better protect yourself and your loved ones from the schemes that could very well be waiting for you when you enter a hospital or similar health care facility when and where you are vulnerable and helpless at the mercy of the hospital administrators who are 1st person contact with responsible party for coverage of your medical benefits via private insurance company or government coverage via Medicare.

Anonymous said...

It seems nothing has changed for the better. I am former nurse, mom neglected in nursing homes, (at her residence by relatives,etc,-got away with it-one was a nurse who knew ALL in system) What can be done to help our vulnerable people who unfortunately have to live in a prison without bars? How can we help. How. They will not hire more staff! I met CNA's who were rarely called to fill in for someone else at a nursing home. They are overworked and as one professor at UMN contemplated year plus ago-"Do we live in a culture of bad care?" She wondered, Low salary? (re: yelling, at patients, cursing, with holding coffee from alzhiemer's patients "if you don't eat your breakfast." and other unacceptable behavior from staff.) It seems hopeless. I have seen staff mistreat patients. Saw plenty and nothing was done.

Sue said...

Anonymous your 1st person standing is important.

What you are witnessing is a pattern of behavior that is wrong and unacceptable being taken as no big deal and who has clout with the agencies that received your complaints?

Follow the clout, the influence, the $ and the votes.

Your testimony would be classified as a whistleblower.

Please Anon do not get discouraged keep trying.

You might want to try: http://www.propublica.org/