Most Frequent and Costly Errors Occur in Surgery

According to the U.S. National Patient Safety Benchmarking Center, the five most frequent adverse events in hospitals, in order, are due to surgery, medication errors, medical nonsurgical treatment, patient falls, and nosocomial infections. These account for 67% of total adverse events. The data on adverse events were collected and analyzed by Safety-Centered Solutions, Inc. (SCS, Tampa, FL, USA).

The five most costly adverse events, in order, are due to surgery, medical nonsurgical treatment, nosocomial infections, medication errors, and pressure ulcers. These account for 81.5% of the total costs in the database. Adverse events in surgery account for the most events in the database, nearly 20%, and comprise 31% of total costs.

"Recent attention has been focused on the prevalence of medication errors and their impact on patient safety and health-care costs,” said David S. Spencer, CEO of SCS. "Our findings indicate that there are several types of adverse events that are at least as frequent and costly as medication errors.”



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