Month in "Focus": April Review

April was a month marked by several startling statistics, including concerns over potentially flawed CDC numbers, and more movement on the mainstream trend of commercial insurers no longer paying for preventable medical errors (PMEs).   

And, once again, April was a month that delivered too many statistics that are nowhere near where they should be. As those numbers represent lives hurt and lives lost--all due to medical errors that remain preventable.

Here's a wrap-up of what we've been covering over the past month:

Quaid continues to use the spotlight for safety. With the near-death experience of his twin babies last November due to preventable medication errors, Dennis Quaid continues to leverage his celebrity to push for better patient safety practices. At the annual meeting of the Association of Healthcare Journalists Quaid professes, “I’d never allow a friend or a family member ever to be in a hospital alone." More on that here.

No age is safe from errors, even our nation's newborns. Speaking of Quaid's baby trauma, the problem is far worse than we thought--a new study finds 11 per cent of hospitalized children in the U.S. were given wrong drugs or accidental overdoes. Researchers also noted that 22 per cent of these medical errors were preventable. More information here.

Deaths and costs continue to rise. In their fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, Health Grades Inc., cites that errors in treatment resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths of Medicare patients in the US, costing $8.8 billion. Learn more at this link.

Medicare and Medicaid go no-pay as costs spiral out of control. An interesting article from April 14th cites the growing costs of preventable medical errors and the aggressive steps that public (Medicare and Medicaid) and private insurers are taking to decrease hospital reimbursements as an incentive for increasing safety. More on that right here.

Still time to sign up. There's still time to enroll for IHI's 2-day seminar June 10th - June 11th titled "Delivering Safe and Optimal Care Through Effective Teamwork and Communication". The seminar provides participants with strategies and tools for training teams and overseeing the implementation of effective team communication. More here.

Key challenges for HAIs. In her April 18th post, columnist Kristen Gerencher hits on the key challenges in the fight against Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) including the need for more accountability, the rising toll of preventable injuries and fatalities, the exorbitant costs of HAIs and the buy-in needed across all departments and hospitals to truly effect the level of change needed. Learn more here.

No-Pay policies now mainstream. Along with Aetna and Wellpoint, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Medicare and Medicaid all instituting no-pay policies, now CIGNA insurance follows suit. The insurer will no longer reimburse hospitals for preventable medical errors (PMEs). There's now little doubt that "No Pay" policies have hit mainstream...the question now is how long it will take to progress from "never events" to cover a broader range of PMEs. That piece is located here.

Some good news on the patient safety front. Silicon Valley Business Journal delivers some much-needed, good news on Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs). According to the April 22nd article:

"The Beacon Collaborative, a voluntary affiliation of 39 hospitals in five San Francisco Bay Area counties, said Monday that its members reduced the number of two major types of hospital infections dramatically between April 2006 and the end of last year, saving an estimated 194 lives in the process. Read more here.

Taking the CDC to task. In taking a strong stance with the CDC through an April 15th Commentary in The Washington Times--airing a day before her official testimony to Congress--Betsy McCaughey, Chairman of The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID), writes: "Tomorrow Congress will hold hearings on whether the federal government is doing enough to prevent deadly hospital infection. The answer is 'no.' The biggest culprit is the CDC. The CDC claims 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. The truth is several times that number."

McCaughey's column is compelling and points a very strong finger at the CDC to (1) provide up-to-date, accurate data on this (preventable!) epidemic and (2) increase the protocols to be in line with those of other countries who have eradicated the problem (as Europe has with MRSA screening). I encourage you to read the post and her testimony before congress right here.

We'll keep covering news, developments and solutions throughout April. Thanks for 'focusing' some of your time here as we all work to improve patient safety and decrease preventable medical errors.

Adam Aronson

CEO, Arrowsight, Inc.