Medical Mistakes For Seniors Multiply

Wyoming News Service

Wrong medications, inappropriate dosages, and surgical errors are mistakes that can cost a life. The U-S Department of Health and Human Services has looked into those instances for Medicare patients and finds about 180-thousand die each year.

Wyoming is home to a fast-growing 65-plus set, with at least 78-thousand on Medicare. Christine Hines with Public Citizen says better record-keeping and information sharing could save lives.

"We would support a national, error-reporting database, where medical providers would be able to look at where the errors are and develop best practices."

The report specifically investigated hospitals that instituted "quality initiatives" to reduce mistakes, and found not much progress has been made. In fact, errors have been on the rise over the past ten years. Nicholas Timko is an attorney who has handled medical malpractice cases across the country. He says the current voluntary approach to improve safety clearly isn't working.

"We need aggressive oversight to make sure that hospitals and doctors are using proven safety steps."

The report also documented harm to patients caused by mistakes that didn't result in deaths, as well as tracking how those added harms extended hospitals stays and treatment.