US has most reports of medical errors
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《英国医生杂志》
Developed countries around the world urgently need to tackle coordination of care, safety issues, medical errors, and communication in their healthcare systems, a new international survey has found.
The survey, from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation supporting independent research on health and social issues, evaluated the experiences of patients in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. More than 2200 adults who had recently been hospitalised, had surgery, or had health problems were interviewed by telephone between March and June 2005 in the final study.
The authors found that all of the countries that they surveyed had high rates of failure to coordinate care during transitions, a lack of support for chronically ill patients, inadequate communication, and safety risks. Although they concluded that no country emerged as a clear winner or loser, the United States stood out for high error rates, inefficient coordination of care, and high out of pocket costs, leading to barriers to access to care.
Patients in America were the most likely to report medical errors, and patients in the UK were the least likely to report safety blunders. A third (34%) of US respondents reported at least one of four types of errors. They believed that they experienced a medical mistake in treatment or care, were given the wrong medication or dose, were given incorrect test results, or experienced delays in receiving abnormal test results. Three in 10 Canadian respondents reported at least one of these errors, as did a fifth or more of patients in Australia (27%), New Zealand (25%), Germany (23%), and the UK (22%).
"The findings show that we have a lot to learn from our colleagues," said Carolyn Clancy, director of the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.(Barbara Kermode-Scott)
The survey, from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation supporting independent research on health and social issues, evaluated the experiences of patients in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. More than 2200 adults who had recently been hospitalised, had surgery, or had health problems were interviewed by telephone between March and June 2005 in the final study.
The authors found that all of the countries that they surveyed had high rates of failure to coordinate care during transitions, a lack of support for chronically ill patients, inadequate communication, and safety risks. Although they concluded that no country emerged as a clear winner or loser, the United States stood out for high error rates, inefficient coordination of care, and high out of pocket costs, leading to barriers to access to care.
Patients in America were the most likely to report medical errors, and patients in the UK were the least likely to report safety blunders. A third (34%) of US respondents reported at least one of four types of errors. They believed that they experienced a medical mistake in treatment or care, were given the wrong medication or dose, were given incorrect test results, or experienced delays in receiving abnormal test results. Three in 10 Canadian respondents reported at least one of these errors, as did a fifth or more of patients in Australia (27%), New Zealand (25%), Germany (23%), and the UK (22%).
"The findings show that we have a lot to learn from our colleagues," said Carolyn Clancy, director of the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.(Barbara Kermode-Scott)