Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

For long now, doctors have noticed that the number of medical errors is constant for all months of the year, except in July when there is a noticeable spike in medication errors. It has been suspected that this spike is because more interns are coming in at teaching hospitals during this month. A study by researchers at UC San Diego, now confirms this.

The researchers have published the results of a study, that show that July is easily the worst month when it comes to medication errors. In fact, it's the worst month that you could choose to check into a hospital, simply because you're likely to be treated by inexperienced interns. The rate of medical errors in the month of July is 10% higher than in other months of the year.

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For the first time, Thompson Reuters has included hospital readmission rates as one of the criteria for inclusion in its annual Top 100 Hospitals list.

However, measuring post-discharge care and dealing with factors that can contribute to a person being re-admitted into a hospital, have proved to be very complex and challenging. Hospitals that have included post-discharge care as part of their overall patient safety efforts, have found that there are a range of factors responsible for readmissions. For instance, readmission rates may be higher when an elderly patient is living alone. Many readmissions every year are traced to medication errors. Besides, a person who suffers from multiple medical conditions, could be at a higher risk of readmission.

Continue reading "Post-Discharge Care Gains Prominence As a Measure of Patient Safety" »