Prevalence and cost of hospital medical errors in the general and elderly United States populations.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to quantify the differences in the prevalence rate and costs of hospital medical errors between the general population and an elderly population aged ≥65 years.

Methods: Methods from an actuarial study of medical errors were modified to identify medical errors in the Premier Hospital Database using data from 2009. Visits with more than four medical errors were removed from the population to avoid over-estimation of cost.

Economic measurement of medical errors using a hospital claims database.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to estimate the occurrence and costs of medical errors from the hospital perspective.

Methods: Methods from a recent actuarial study of medical errors were used to identify medical injuries. A visit qualified as an injury visit if at least 1 of 97 injury groupings occurred at that visit, and the percentage of injuries caused by medical error was estimated.

Errors in transfusion medicine: have we learned our lesson?

The phrase "patient safety" represents freedom from accidental or preventable harm due to events occurring in the healthcare setting. Practitioners aim to reduce, if not prevent, medical errors and adverse outcomes. Yet studies performed from many perspectives show that medical error constitutes a serious worldwide problem.

Sensemaking of patient safety risks and hazards.

In order for organizations to become learning organizations, they must make sense of their environment and learn from safety events. Sensemaking, as described by Weick (1995), literally means making sense of events. The ultimate goal of sensemaking is to build the understanding that can inform and direct actions to eliminate risk and hazards that are a threat to patient safety.

The association between duration of storage of transfused red blood cells and morbidity and mortality after reoperative cardiac surgery.

Red blood cells (RBCs) undergo numerous changes during storage; however, the clinical relevance of these storage "lesions" is unclear. We hypothesized that the duration of storage of transfused RBCs is associated with mortality after repeat sternotomy for cardiac surgery, because these patients are at high risk for both RBC transfusion and adverse outcome. We retrospectively analyzed 434 patients who underwent repeat median sternotomy for coronary artery bypass graft or valve surgery and who received allogeneic RBCs.

Experience with the medical event reporting system for transfusion medicine (MERS-TM) at three hospitals.

Background: The MERS-TM assists hospital transfusion services to identify, analyze, and correct system events relating to the delivery of blood to patients.

Methods: The MERS-TM system was used from February of 1999 to December 2002. All reported near-miss and actual events were recorded and analyzed.

The Medical Event Reporting System for Transfusion Medicine: will it help get the right blood to the right patient?

The Medical Event Reporting System for Transfusion Medicine (MERS-TM) collects, classifies, and analyzes events that potentially could compromise the safety of transfused blood to facilitate system improvement. This system is designed to collect data on near misses as well as actual events. Near-miss events are a valuable source of data because they occur more frequently than, but share many characteristics and causes of, actual events.