Error rates in medical institutions are hard to establish because we usually don't hear about them. Only a fraction of the errors are published in professional journals, and there are no requirements in most states to share or analyze information on errors. It's just been sort of a sin committed by hospital administrators to avoid any potential suit. The head of the Department of Pharmacy Care Systems at Auburn University, one of the country's preeminent medication error experts, estimates that there is one error per patient per day in every hospital. If the experience of New York, one of the few states that track the outcome of medication errors, holds true for the nation, more than 830 patients may be dying each year from medication mistakes in the United States.
Medications are one area where mistakes can occur in medical institutions.
There are other areas, such as the laboratory and the blood bank, where mistakes occur. Most of us just see the tip of the iceberg because many settlement agreements contain a no publicity clause. In many cases plaintiffs are put in the awkward position of having to choose between a settlement and publicity. There is growing evidence, compiled by the medical profession itself, that serious hospital errors occur regularly. Allowed to pour over the medical records in New York state hospitals, the Harvard Medical Practice Study showed in 1991 that 4 percent of all hospitalized patients suffered injuries resulting from medical errors that either prolonged their hospital stay or resulted in disability.