Medical errors occur when a part of your medical care doesn’t go as planned.   The errors can happen in a lot of different places:

• Hospitals
• Clinics
• Outpatient Surgery Centers
• Doctors’ Offices
• Nursing Homes
• Pharmacies
• Patients’ Homes

And the errors can occur with:

• Medicines
• Surgery
• Diagnosis
• Equipment
• Lab Reports

Medical errors are a big problem.   They are the leading cause of death in America .   The Institute of Medicine estimates that as many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year, which is more than from vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS.

There are many groups working together to make the healthcare system safer for people.   One such group is the Leapfrog Group.   Their goal is to enlist employer purchasing power to initiate improvements in the safety, quality and overall value of healthcare for American consumers.   Here are the four improvement activities that the Leapfrog Group is promoting in order to increase patient safety in hospitals:

1. Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE):   Hospital staff are able to enter medication prescriptions into a computer that helps prevent prescribing errors, which could reduce errors by more than 50%.
2. Evidence-Based Hospital Referral (EHR):   Patients who need certain complex medical procedures should try to be treated at hospitals that offer the best survival rates.   Research shows that a patient’s risk of dying could be reduced by 40%.
3. ICU Physician Staffing (IPS):   Hospitals should staff Intensive Care Units with doctors who have special training with patients in need of critical care, which has been shown to reduce the risk of patients dying by 40%.
4. Leapfrog Quality Index – The National Quality Forum’s 27 Safe Practices:   The National Quality Forum-endorsed Safe Practices cover a range of practices that would reduce the harm in certain processes or procedures of healthcare.

Please click here for a list of hospitals contracted with HMO California and their participation with Leapfrog measures.