One in every seven hospitalized Medicare patients are harmed by treatment mistakes.

One in every seven hospitalized Medicare patients are harmed by treatment mistakes, according to new analysis by the Department of Health & Human Services released Tuesday.

The report cites a variety of "adverse events" or causes for treatment errors, including excessive bleeding after surgery, urinary tract infections linked to catheters and incorrect medications. Researchers estimate that these types of adverse events contribute to 15,000 deaths per month or 180,000 deaths each year, according to the report.

Some patient-rights groups are calling these findings alarming.

"The country is in a patient safety crisis," said David Arkush, the director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division in a statement. "The only workable solution to preventing unnecessary deaths and injuries is to combine much more patient-protective hospital protocols with much better scrutiny by hospitals of physicians and other health care providers, and to appropriately discipline those whose performance results in preventable patient harm."



Links:
http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/adverse-events-among-hospitalized-medicare-beneficiaries

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/read-govt-report-showing-1-in-7-hospitalized-medicare-beneficiaries-harmed-