The relationship between hospital systems load and patient harm.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the relationship between patient harm due to health-care errors and the stresses on the hospital systems that occur because of the patients in need of care.

Methods: Two California hospitals each provided 1 year of data to study the relationship between patient harm and Hospital Systems Load. This observational study used 2 metrics, Hospital Systems Load and patient harm.

The tipping point: the relationship between volume and patient harm.

This study purports to show the relationship between volume and patient harm due to health care error. Using 5 measures of volume and incident reports weighted for patient harm over the course of 515 days, it is shown that increased volume is related to increased harm to patients. As the number of areas in the hospital experiencing high volume increased, the likelihood of patients sustaining serious harm because of health care error also increased.