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Most people do not think about the quality of care provided at their local hospitals. When a person needs to go to the hospital, he or she goes where the doctor has practicing rights or where the health insurance mandates. People really don’t check the quality of care provided unless the hospital has a bad reputation. This way of thinking could be a mistake, however. Medical errors and inaccuracies in hospitals in the United States cause more health problems and premature deaths than people realize. The number of errors that occur is significant, but the media has not widely reported on the situation, so people are not aware of it. These errors are preventable and could be reduced with vigilance on the part of hospitals and patients alike. This article will highlight studies on preventable adverse events that happen in hospitals in the United States and how monitoring health at home can help reduce a person’s chances of suffering such an event.

Preventable Fatalities in Hospitals

According to a study published in the Journal of Patient Safety in 2013, the number of premature deaths due to preventable adverse events in hospitals in the United States was estimated to be over 400,000 per year. This includes medical errors and inaccuracies in medical care not due to direct error. In 2012, about the same time as this study, the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization that works to promote safety in healthcare, began rating general acute care hospitals based on a grading system. Each hospital is evaluated according to an analysis of 30 patient safety measures and given a grade of A, B, C, D, or F. During the 2017 analysis, the Leapfrog Group determined that over 1000 people in the United States die each year due to preventable medical errors. The Group points out that hospitals with D and F ratings have a 50% higher risk of mortality than A rated hospitals. The Leapfrog Group estimates that if all 2,639 hospitals that are graded each year would achieve an A rating, more than 33,000 lives would be saved.

Types of Errors in Hospitals

As referenced by the 2013 study, preventable adverse events include all events that occur during hospitalization that are preventable in nature. These events fall into two categories. The first category includes errors in medical care that directly result from human error. Things like administering the wrong dosage of a medication or applying monitoring devices incorrectly fall into this category. The second category includes errors that are not directly linked to human error. The most prevalent type of error in this second category is diagnostic error. The diagnostic process is prone to errors due to its complicated nature. Add to that a combination of a need for a fast diagnosis and a lack of information on which to make the diagnosis, and the risk for errors increases. Even with the plethora of technological equipment available to help determine diagnoses, doctors often do not have enough accurate information in the time frame required. This includes information obtained from the patient at the time of admission, which is often incomplete and inaccurate.

Proactively Preventing Chances of Hospital Errors

The Leapfrog Group’s hospital grading system has helped hospitals to work toward reducing their numbers of preventable adverse events and achieving an A rating. While hospitals make efforts to improve their quality of care, patients can also work toward acquiring an accurate health scoring record to have available in case hospitalization is required. Because most people don’t know when they will need to be hospitalized, this record must be started long before it is needed. By using home health testing equipment and online health measurement tools, a person can record a health tracking record. This record will include baseline health level measurements that can be used to detect changes in health status when a person becomes ill and requires hospitalization. Based on the comparisons, the person’s doctor will be able to order appropriate diagnostic tests quickly, increasing the speed at which care can be provided and reducing the person’s risk of suffering preventable problems.

Clearly taking the initiative to monitor health at home can have a positive influence on reducing preventable adverse events that may occur during hospitalization. To have the desired effect, wellness monitoring must be initiated when a person is healthy and should become a part of a person’s daily routine, just like brushing one’s teeth. Quantihealth has affordable health monitoring equipment and online tools available to help start a health and wellness tracking program. Visit www.thequantihealth.com for more information.