Medical Malpractice
Indiana’s First Mandatory Physician Error Report Released
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March 7th, 2007
"Indiana Hospital Report"
Indiana recently became one of the first states to require hospitals and surgery centers to report the errors made by their physicians. Some of the results of the first report were released yesterday. The report shockingly revealed that one of the most common errors was the leaving of a foreign object inside a surgical patient.
Pressure sores and medication errors rounded out the top three physician mistakes. The next most common mistake was surgery performed on the wrong part of the body.
There were 72 adverse events that caused death or disability reported by 36 of the 139 healthcare facilities in Indiana. Surgical mistakes accounted for nearly half of all the errors.
“Really, these are the events you never really want to happen. They should be zero,” said Dr. Judith Monroe, state commissioner of health.
The Errors
Not all adverse event data has been collected yet. The full report will be made public in august.
Several hospitals reported the development of severe bedsores, and medication errors resulting in death, surgical procedures performed on the wrong body part, and surgical instruments left inside patients. These instruments had to be removed surgically.
Monroe said the findings from Indiana's report closely mimic those of Minnesota's. Minnesota has required similar reporting for three years now.
Report Data
Below are some figures for the number of adverse events reported by physicians in Indiana:
- Foreign object left in patient – 21 instances
- Operation on the wrong body part – 4
- Wrong surgical procedure performed – 3
- Operation on the wrong patient – 2
- Death/serious disability resulting from instrument misuse or malfunction – 2
- Death/serious disability resulting from contaminated drug/instrument – 1
- Death/serious disability from medication error – 6
- Advanced bed sores – 23
