Ninety Deaths a Day from Mistkes in Italian Health System

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Ninety Deaths a Day from Mistakes in Italian Health System

 

(original published on 17 September 2004 in

<http://www.corriere.it/>Corriere della Sera)

 

Research by specialists and medical journals: 50 % of the deaths were

preventable. Call for a group to monitor risks issued

 

ROME - A piece of information and a public event are reason for

discussion. Medical errors are causing more victims than automobile

accidents, heart disease and many tumors. It is estimated that 90

deaths occur every day in Italy by reason of medical mistakes, wrong

drugs administered, mistakes in dosages of drugs and oversights in

the operating room.

 

The data are widely different, they range from 14,000 (according to

the association of anesthetists) to 50,000 (according to Assinform,

editor of journals dealing with risk evaluation in the area of health

care) every year in Italy alone: 50 % were preventable errors. And

320,000 persons are damaged, with a cost that reaches 1 % of GNP, no

less than ten billion euro a year. This heavy casualty report will be

discussed by experts, medical doctors and representatives of

patients' organizations during the first Consensus Conference on Risk

Management in health care, on 23 September at the Finance Office

building in Ostia, Rome. The objective is to constitute a group to

monitor health care risks and a medical errors database, which does

not yet exist in Italy.

 

THE INQUIRY - " Risk containment initiatives in health care " , said

Cesare Cursi, Undersecretary for Health, during the presentation of

the initiative, " have to cover all areas where errors can occur

during a stay in hospital, such as diagnosis, treatment and general

assistance to patients. " A first report about mistakes in hospitals

has been made by the Technical Commission on Clinical Risk, which was

set up by the Ministry of Health. The largest number of mistakes

happens in the operating room (32%), during a stay in hospital beds

(28%), in the emergency ward (22%) and in out-patient treatment

(18%). The four most at-risk medical specialties are orthopedics and

traumatology (16.5%), oncology (13%), estetrics and gynecology

(10.8%) and general surgery (10.6%).

Also, there are between 12,000 and 15,000 legal cases every year for

alleged medical errors, although it is estimated that two thirds of

the doctors are absolved in the end. According to Ania (the

association which represents insurance companies), there are damage

claims of 2.4 billion euro a year.

 

THE REPLIES - " No one can know with certainty how many causes there

are, we're only dealing with estimates, explained Maurizio

Maggiorotti, president of Amami, the association of medical doctors,

who are accused of malpractice (so-called medical errors) injustly,

commenting that the data which point to 90 deaths a day from errors

in Italy. He says all the complaints are going into the same category

of death and damage, like traffic deaths. The association has asked

the presidents of the courts to extrapolate these data, but without

result. " But in this area everything is foggy. Each type of damage

claim takes different routes, penal, civil or extragiudiciary. " It is

estimated " , added Maggiorotti, " according to the opinions of the

magistrates, that about two thirds of accused are absolved. "

 

Paradoxically, doubts about the research also come from the minister

of health Gerolamo Sirchia, who through his ministry has been the

promoter of the initiative of the observatory on health care risks.

According to Sirchia, the estimates on medical errors are

" exaggerated " .

 

" Unfortunately, the risk in medicine will never be zero but with our

engagement, we have to bring it close to zero " , explains the Health

Minister, " with systems of management which assure the quality of

service. In any case, the errors range from slight to very serious

but one cannot call them all very serious cases " , even those which

may cause death.

 

17 September 2004

Corriere.it

 

 

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