Co ME Update 1st Page

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Medical errors remain frequent, harmful, and costly.

In 2019, we released our first study of medical harm in Massachusetts that found almost 62,000 patient harm events in one year statewide and estimated the resulting cost to payers at a very conservative $617 million. Since then, costs have risen and other leading researchers have established that, in hospitals, about one in four patients experience harm events during their admissions. These combined findings allow us to calculate the annual cost of patient harm events in Massachusetts hospitals with a high degree of confidence. We estimate that: 

  • 179,478 patients experienced at least one harm event during their hospitalizations;
  • Health plans paid out $2.14 billion in excess claims for additional health care necessitated by the harm; and
  • At least $446 million of these excess claims were paid by MassHealth.

These figures do not include costs to patients and families and to the hospitals themselves. Nor do they capture how harm events impact patient and workforce well-being and strain system capacity.  

Automated adverse event monitoring

A leading barrier to harm reduction has been the lack of timely, actionable data. Automated adverse event monitoring provides near real-time information that has enabled hospitals in other states to reduce harm by 25% on average. It is the linchpin to the Roadmap to Health Care Safety for Massachusetts. Learn more

The Financial and Human Cost of Medical Error

The Betsy Lehman Center's 2019 report details original research findings and proposes a coordinated response to accelerate improvement.

Related research

The Safety of Inpatient Health Care, New England Journal of Medicine

The Safety of Outpatient Health Care: Review of Electronic Health Records, Annals of Internal Medicine

Adverse Events in Hospitals: A Quarter of Medicare Patients Experienced Harm in October 2018, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General