Nearly one-third of Medicare patients rehabilitating from surgery, stroke or some other injury suffer harm from something that happens during their hospital stay, according to a government report released Thursday.
About three in 10 Medicare patients who stayed in a rehab hospital experienced serious side effects from a change in medication, a pressure ulcer, an infection or some other injury that came about as a result of the care they were receiving.
Out of 158 harmful incidents studied by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General, 46 percent resulted from changes in medication that caused patients to become delirious, experience extremely low blood sugar, suffer from an allergic reaction or extreme bleeding or experience some other side effect.
Infections comprised 15 percent of the incidents, and pressure ulcers made up another 14 percent.
Doctors who reviewed the incidents determined that nearly half were preventable, and often determined that caregivers did a poor job when it came to monitoring patients’ progress and determining how much medication to administer.
The mistakes cost Medicare a lot of money. The IG estimated that the harm to patients they surveyed led to acute care hospital admissions and emergency department visits that cost Medicare at least $7.7 million.
“The findings in this report confirm the need and opportunity to significantly reduce the incidence of adverse events in rehab hospitals, thereby improving the quality of care that patients receive,” the report said.
