According to the Boston Globe medical errors are on the rise in the state of Massachusetts. There were 753 medical mistakes in 2013 and 821 serioius incidents in 2014, an increase of 9 percent. But the Department of Public Health says that is not such a bad thing, that the increase is due to better reporting, not more errrors.
This follows a rise from 444 in 2012 to 753 in 2013, a 70 percent rise in reported errors.
"The newest data show that there were 290 serious injuries or deaths resulting from a fall in 2014, a slight rise from 282 incidents in 2012, the Globe reports. The number of wrong-site surgeries decreased, from 36 to 24, and the number of wrong surgeries/procedures performed stayed nearly the same--11 and 10, respectively, in 2013 and 2014. There also were 41 foreign objects left behind during surgery in 2014, compared to 33 in 2013."
It seems as if some things are improving but some are worse. Don't we all hope that the Department of Public Health is right, that reporting incidents has improved and not that incidents have increased. BTW, Hospital errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States!
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