Earlier this year the World Health Organization announced a new effort to cut medication errors in half in five years. It seems like an ambitious goal. But in reality it may not be, as practically all serious drug errors are preventable.
The focus of WHO’s efforts to eradicate this serious medical mistake are global, but drug errors are all too frequent and catastrophic in this country. It’s been estimated that one patient dies from a medication error each day in the United States. This helps explain why it’s also been estimated that medical errors, of which a drug mistake is one ...
In terms of serious, preventable medical errors at hospitals, there is recent good news as well as bad news.
According to a new national survey, the number of two specific types of hospital-acquired patient harm – pressure ulcers and fall-related injuries – has decreased over the last four years. The bad news from the survey is that only about a third of the nation’s hospitals have taken steps to prevent both of these medical errors.
The Leapfrog Group is a not-for-group that focuses on improving the quality of U.S. healthcare. It just recently issued a new report on the two ...
The federal government’s most recent report on the nation’s fatal driving accidents shows that the number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes jumped 7 percent between 2014 and 2015. And in that same period, the number of people who died in Missouri driving accidents about doubled that nationwide increase.
In May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its 2015 State Traffic Data report, comparing statistics on motor vehicle accident deaths in 2014 and 2015. It revealed that 35,092 people died in traffic crashes nationwide in 2015 – a 7 percent ...
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