Medical Errors

[ls317]

http://www.in.gov/isdh/regsvcs/mers/index.htm

This report is the first report of the Indiana Medical Error Reporting System. This is a preliminary report and presents information about reportable events occurring in Indiana health care facilities between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. The report is based on data received by the Indiana State Department of Health prior to February 26, 2007. Because health care facilities have approximately six months to review events and report, additional reportable events for calendar year 2006 will likely be received in the coming months. The final report for 2006 will be released in August 2007 once complete 2006 data has been received.

The focus of this report is data that may be used to improve patient safety. Data on the number of medical errors and type of errors has not previously been gathered by the Indiana State Department of Health. This initial report therefore provides a baseline on the number of medical errors occurring in Indiana health care facilities. The initial data shows that stage 3 or stage 4 pressure ulcers acquired after admission to the hospital, retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery, and surgery performed on the wrong body part are the three most common areas for medical error. The goal of the Indiana State Department of Health is that this data will increase focus on these issues and promote the development of evidence-based initiatives designed to improve patient safety.

[fed-up]

1. I am uninsurable because of typo HBV was written instead of EBV-& PROSTATE is fine (I'm a girl) nt

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. But you can be tested to definitively show you don't carry Hep B. So couldn't this "typo" be

corrected? :shrug:

[fed-up]

4. I passed the $80 test and then they wanted a $485 test-luckily I asked HOW

Much at the blood bank where I went to have my blood drawn before I went ahead with the test.

They also were asking repeatedly about my treatment and history of migraine headaches.

I had called into a clinic about 5 years previous thinking I may have possibly had a migraine. I never went in to see a doc, never was diagnosed, never was treated and told them verbally and in writing. They also had copies of my chart.

Blue Cross or was it Blue Shield refused to insure me since I wouldn't tell them about a diagnosis/treatment that NEVER occured!

Anyway that was about 7 years ago and since then I have had food intolerances and severe degenerative disc disease with no medical coverage...which is why I cashed out my equity and bought down. Now I can earn money as I am able, and not worry if I have to lay down for a day or two.

And which is also why my BF and I put on a fundraiser dinner last week and raised $1500 for SB 840.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Even though $485 is a gouge, isn't it cheaper than going 7 years without

health insurance?

I'm not saying the system is in any way fair or even makes sense, but given the constraints, wouldn't getting the test still have been better than what you've been through?

[fed-up]

7. Because of the untreated migraine-they were not going to insure or if they

did rates would have been outrageous. I had already spent months digging up old medical records, getting the clinic director to sign about the error and the migraine that was never diagnosed. It was a lost cause.

I did what they initially asked, there was NO need for the $500 test. I knew then that I could not trust them. They kept telling me they would not insure me unless I gave documentation for the non-existent diagnosis/treatment of the possible migraine. They were giving me an impossible task to do.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. I'm surprised that being given the wrong medication wasn't ahead of all of these.

Unless this is counted under a different category, or Indiana is somehow doing a great job with that.

[Czolgosz]

5. K & R