Worried about medical service errors? You should be!

AARP has a fascinating article online which emphatically states that patients have a one-in-five chance of being adversely affected BY MEDICAL PROVIDERS.

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From their report:

"Consistent with other studies that have found that most medical injuries are due to errors, the Harvard Study determined that 69 percent of the medical injuries identified were due to error, and were, therefore, preventable.

Studies conducted more recently indicate that medical injury may be substantially more common than suggested in the Harvard Study. Using a method more likely to capture incidents of medical error than the earlier study, Andrews and her colleagues found that 17.7 percent of patients whose care was observed experienced at least one serious adverse event per hospitalization. The frequency of medical injuries was linked to severity of illness and length of hospital stay, with the likelihood of experiencing a medical injury increasing by 6 percent per day of hospitalization.

One or more causes of medical injuries were determined in just over one half of cases in the study. In 37.8 percent of cases, the adverse events were found to have been caused by an individual; 15.6 percent had interactive causes; and 9.8 percent were due to administrative decisions. Although 17.7 percent of patients experienced medical injuries that prolonged their hospital stays, the study found that only 1.2 percent filed claims for compensation for their injuries.
Note: For more on the Epidemiology of medical error see here.