General Hospital Hazards

the HAZARDS of HOSPITALS Why US Hospitals Aren't Nearly as Safe as You Think 田田 田 ENTER AT OWN RISK! CAUTION! OWN R CAUTION! CAUTION! We all think of the hospital as the place we go to get better. But hospitals in the United States are making people sicker at alarming rates. Between overtired interns, germ-covered doctors, and haphazard record keeping, you might find yourself in more trouble than you were when you checked in. MEDICAL ERRORS You are 33,000 X more likely to die from a hospital error than a plane crash. Chances of Chances of dying due to a hospital error: dying in a plane crash: 1 IN 300 1 IN 10M 1 IN 5 of all hospitalized patients suffer harm from medical errors. MEDICAL BILL TOTAL DUE 17,000,000,000 200,000 $17 BILLION Deaths per year What mistakes in hospitals cost the US every year from medical errors and infections. INFECTIONS 1.7 MILLION 99,000 Die from infections alone each year. infections are contracted in the hospital each year. Infections kill more Americans each year than: CAR ACCIDENTS W) BREAST CANCER AIDS Number of hospital-acquired infections that lead to a death: EUROPE: USA: 1 IN 122 1 IN 17 $35-45 BILLION What healthcare-associated infections cost each year CAUSES SLEEP DEPRIVATION Interns that work 5 or more 24 hour shifts in a month make: 7X 4X As many errors that result in death. As many harmful errors. ши Not just unsafe for patients: 168% Increased chance of a car accident after a 24-hour shift SOLUTION Shorter shifts for doctors BAD SANITATION 26% OF THE TIME 50% How often medical workers Half of doctors' neckties have been found to harbor dangerous pathogens. wash their hands when they're supposed to in ICUS. Step 1 Step 2 SOLUTION Enforce good sanitation practices. INEFFICIENT RECORD KEEPING AND COMMUNICATION 7,000 At Children's Hospital in Boston, switching to electronic record keeping and implementing a patient hand-off training pro- gram reduced medical errors by: 40% People killed by medication errors - giving a patient the wrong medication or too much - each year SOLUTION Implement computerized record keeping and patient hand-off training. CONCLUSION The United States ranks last out of 19 developed nations in preventable deaths at hospitals. There are many causes behind this, but unless every sector of health care works together, there can be no solution. CREATED BY: MEDICALBILLINGANDCODINGCERTIFICATION.NET References: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/treatment/articles/2011/07/22/ health-buzz- hospital-admission-more- dangerous-than-flying * http://www. scientificamerican.com/ blog/post.cfm?id-deaths-from-avoidable-medical-error-2009-08 -10 • http://motherjones.com/mojo/ 2011/04/hospitals-way-more-dangerous-you-thought • http://hospitalinfection.org/PDF/nypost4-16. pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/business/27germ.html?em=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1267412412-yP2bf1/3pu4 +g34XVmluJA * http://www.cdc.-gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/Scott_CostPaper.pdf * http://www.harvard1989.com/ c/sites/default/files/Volpp%20and%20Landrigan%20JAMA. pdf * http:// www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyId-6619687 • http://ajm.sagepub.com/content/24/3/205. abstract• http://www.science daily.com/releases/2004/05/040525062317.htm * http://abcnews.go.com/2020/superfreakonomics-dirty- hands-deadly-infections/story?id=8861823 • http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/In-the- Literature/2008/Jan/Measuring-the-Health-of-Nations --Updating-an -Earlier-Analysis.aspx BY NO ND This work is under a creative commons license.