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By Scott Culver
Communications Specialist
WEA Trust
November 2003
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We assume hospital care should be safe – yet as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year because of preventable medical mistakes, according to a 1999 Institute of Medicine report.
Beyond the unnecessary human toll, a study by the Midwest Business Group on Health estimates the cost of poor quality to be up to one-third of every dollar spent on health care.
The WEA Trust is committed to supporting health care quality improvement efforts and giving Trust health plan members information to make decisions about health care. The Trust is one of more than 140 health plan sponsors nationwide that belong to The Leapfrog Group, an organization founded to trigger improvements in the quality of health care.
New information to help consumers assess the safety and quality of urban hospital care is now available online from Leapfrog. It shows the progress urban hospitals are making on three standards proven to reduce medical errors and save lives:
About 60,000 hospital deaths and half a million serious medication errors caused by preventable mistakes could be avoided each year if urban hospitals nationwide implemented these standards, saving the U.S. health care system $9.7 billion annually, according to the Leapfrog Group.
What can you do?
Tell your health care provider that you want information on quality to make choices. Your doctor and hospital need to know that this information is important to you and that you will use it. If your hospital is not listed on the Leapfrog Group Web site, ask about what practices are in place to ensure your safety.
Posted November 10, 2003