16 Statistics on the State of Healthcare Quality

Here are 16 statistics on the state of U.S. healthcare quality, as reported in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2011 National Healthcare Quality Report.

Mortality
•    Number of Americans who die each year from medical errors in 2000 — 44,000-98,000
•    Rate change of deaths following complications of care from 2004 to 2008 —138 per 1,000 admissions to 122 per 1,000 admissions (adults ages 18-89)
•    Rate change of deaths following inpatient pneumonia from 2004 to 2008 — 54 per 1,000 admissions to 36 per 1,000 admissions

Prevalence
•    Annual rate of adverse events for hospitalized patients in 2000 — 2.9-3.7 percent
•    Annual rate of adverse drug events among Medicare beneficiaries in ambulatory settings in 2003 — 50 per 1,000 person-years
•    Annual number of adverse drug reactions during hospital admissions in 2000 — 1.9 million
•    Annual number of healthcare-associated infections in 2007 — 1.7 million
•    Average rate of postoperative sepsis infections in 2008 — 15 per 1,000 hospital discharges
•    Average rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in 2009 — 2 per 1,000 central-line days for medical-surgical ICUs to almost 3 per 1,000 central-line days for medical ICUs

Adherence to Surgical Care Improvement Project standards of care
•    Proportion of surgery patients who received appropriate care across eight SCIP process of care measures in 2009 — 86 percent
•    Proportion of surgery patients who had appropriate hair removal in 2009 — 99 percent
•    Proportion of surgery patients who received recommended antibiotics in 2009 — 98 percent
•    Proportion of surgery patients who received antibiotics 1 hour prior to surgery in 2009 — 96 percent

Costs
•    Cost attributable to medical errors in 2008 — $19.5 billion
•    Total cost per error in 2008 — $13,000
•    Annual cost attributable to surgical errors in 2008 — $1.5 billion

Related Articles on Healthcare Quality:

Study Finds Pay-for-Performance Led to Minimal Improvement in Quality

Study Supports Previous Research on Link Between Hospital Nursing Designation, Quality Care

Blood Transfusions Overused, May Do More Harm Than Good

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