Consumers for Civil Justice - Patient Safety in American Hospitals

Patient Safety in American Hospitals

Patient Safety in American Hospitals
Study Released by HealthGrades
July 2004

Policymakers, providers, and consumers have made the safety of patients in United States hospitals a top priority. The need to monitor, track, assess, and improve the safety of inpatient care is at the top of many stakeholders' agendas.

Despite the shocking and widely publicized statistics on preventable deaths due to medical errors in America's hospitals, there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years.

Downlaod and read Patient Safety in American Hospitals [pdf]

Total payments for malpractice judgments have fallen 24.5 percent, from $299.6 million in 2000 to $226.2 million in 2004.
The median payment resulting from a judgment appears to have risen, from $230,000 in 2000 to $265,000 in 2004.
The total number of judgments against physicians dropped 31.9 percent between 2000 and 2004, from 670 to 456.
The number of malpractice judgments against physicians, adjusted for population growth, has fallen 34.6 percent since 2000.