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Medical injuries in US hospitals cause more than 30 000 deaths each year

BMJ 2003; 327 doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7420.887 (Published 16 October 2003)
Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:887.1

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  1. Susan Mayor
  1. London

    Medical injuries incurred by patients while in hospital result in longer hospital stays, increased hospital charges, and more than 30 000 deaths each year, a study published this week says (JAMA 2003;290: 1868-74).

    The study analysed patient safety indicators–measures recording incidences related to patient safety while in hospital–from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify medical injuries in 7.45 million hospital discharge abstracts from 994 acute hospitals across 28 states for the year 2000. This was equivalent to a 20% stratified sample of non-federal acute hospitals in the United States.

    Results were assessed for the …

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