Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

Healthgrades.com, a website that provides reports on physicians, including disciplinary actions, board certification, education, and representative opinions from patients, conducted a study on the cost of medical errors to Medicare. The study found that patient safety incidents cost the program $8.8 billion from 2004-2006, and resulted in 238,337 preventable deaths. It found that the overall incidence rate was 3 %, with the number of incidents over 1.1 million over the three year period.

The good news in the study is that the overall death rate for Medicare patients as a result of the incidents decreased by nearly 5 % over the period, although many types of incidents increased in frequency. The most common patient safety incidents were bed sores, failure to rescue, and post-operative respiratory failure, which accounted for over 63 % of incidents. The study also found that the quality of care varied widely by hospital, with the best hospitals experiencing a 43 % lower incidence rate than the worst-performing hospitals.

If you have suffered as a result of medical malpractice, you need an advocate who can get you just compensation. Contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.