Recent Statistics Related to Quality of Health Care in America
What is Patient- and Family- Centered Care?
- What are the core concepts of patient- and family-centered care?
- Recent Statistics Related to Quality of Health Care in America
- How is the Remaking American Medicine Campaign helping to achieve this goal?
- Condition H (Condition Help)
- What Patients expect from the Health Care System
- Top Ten Quality Indicators of an Effective Patient- and Family-Centered Physician
- Top Ten Things a Patient or Family Member can do to Ensure Quality Care
- Patients And Families As Advisors: A Checklist For Attitudes
- Patients And Families As Partners: A Checklist For Attitudes
Medical Errors
- Between 48,000 and 98,000 people die each year in hospitals from preventable medical errors. One million more are injured. 1
- Medical errors kill more people per year than breast cancer, AIDS or motor vehicle accidents. 2
- Medical errors have been cited as the nation's fourth leading cause of death according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. 3
- The National Academy of State Health Policy reports that 106 medical-error related bills have been introduced in state legislatures since 1999 and legislation to address medical errors has been introduced in 26 states. 4
- Forty-two percent of Americans report that they have been personally involved in a situation where a preventable medical error was made in their own care or that of a family member. 5
- Thirty-five percent of physicians report that they have been personally involved in a situation where a preventable medical error was made in their own care or that of a family member. 5
- Seventy-three percent of the public said that the government should require health care providers to report all serious medical errors; while 21 percent said reporting should be done on a voluntary basis. 6
- Eighty-four percent of the public thinks that increasing efforts to reduce medical errors should be a very important priority for the nation's health agenda. 7
- Doctors provide appropriate preventive care only 50 percent of the time, effective chronic care 60 percent of the time, and evidence-based acute care only 70 percent of the time. 8
- Eighteen thousand Americans die each year from heart attacks because they didn't receive preventive medications, although they were eligible for them. 9
- More than 50 percent of patients with diabetes, hypertension, tobacco addiction, hyperlipidemia, congestive heart failure, asthma, depression and chronic atrial fibrillation are currently managed inadequately. 10
- The lag between the discovery of more effective forms of treatment and their incorporation into routine patient care averages 17 years. 11
- Nearly $400 billion — almost one-third of the total spent on health care each year — is wasted on poor quality health care. 12
- Preventable medical errors drive up health care costs by as much as $29 billion annually. 13
- Medication-related errors for hospitalized patients cost roughly $2 billion annually. 14
- Nearly 66.5 million avoidable sick days and more than $1.8 billion in excess medical costs can be traced to the health care system's routine failure to provide needed care. 15
