by Donita Weddle

Created on: August 03, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

Would you choose to give birth at a hospital known for committing medication errors on newborns? Would you choose to have surgery at a hospital that previously performed surgery on the wrong patient or body part? Where would you find the information to make an informed choice? According to Joan Little of the St. Louis Beacon in her July 28, 2008 article "Hospital errors: What the patient doesn't know might hurt", serious medical errors are occurring in hospitals across our nation. Little more than half of all states require their hospitals to report and to make the reports publicly accessible. For those that do, there are no standardized practices in place. The public is kept largely in the dark.

But would better reporting of hospital errors improve our nation's health care? Hospitals could receive retaliation from the patients and the community. Insurance companies could withhold payment. Patients may choose not to have necessary procedures done for fear of mistakes. There may be no way to monitor when errors are actually reported, and it may be tempting not to report to minimize litigation. Quality and Safety in Health Care Vol 16, pg 165-168 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, resulted in an article in June 2007 entitled "Patient Safety and Quality: Hospital incident reporting systems often miss physician high-risk procedure and prescribing errors". That article indicated that incident reporting systems in U.S. hospitals have long been voluntary, with nurses reporting 90 percent of incidents and physicians reporting only 1.9 percent. A major limitation of hospital reporting appears to be that reports involving physician care are underrepresented.

If mandatory reporting were implemented, hospitals may be forced to improve processes and procedures to remedy the likelihood of any repeated error to keep the public, lawmakers, and insurance companies happy. The identification of training issues and necessary safeguards could be facilitated through reporting. Staff issues could be acknowledged and possibly dealt with. Patients and their families could be alerted to possible errors and be more cognizant of what is happening to them and around them while in the hospital, lessening the likelihood of fatal or serious errors. There is the potential of building more community confidence in their local hospital and more community pride in the quality of care provided there. Insurance companies would pay less for medical costs that previously arose from preventable

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