Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I join Medicare’s new chief in his plan to increase the quality and safety of medical care. Medicare's new chief “called for more steps to improve patient safety Tuesday, in the wake of a government report that said one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients is harmed during their stay.” (Washington AP, 11/16).

The new HHS report “analyzed the records of 780 Medicare patients hospitalized in October 2008 to examine mistakes and unavoidable consequences of treatment, such as previously unknown drug allergies or medication side effects.” During that month alone, over 130,000 Medicare patients suffered an adverse effect while in the hospital. Nearly half of these were preventable.

Additionally, about 1,500 patients per month suffered complications from treatment that contributed to their deaths. In response, a new Medicare "innovation center" was opened recently that is “designed to develop and test ways to improve quality of care and lower health care costs for everyone, not just Medicare recipients. The program is one of several established by the new health care law to help Medicare spur improvements in patient safety.”

Initial projects target coordination across multiple health providers so that new providers know what tests have been performed elsewhere. Other goals include increasing primary care quality to reduce the chances that patients end up hospitalized.