Adverse Events Reports - Washington St Dept of Health

Adverse Events.
Washington State Department of Health.

This Web site provides never event data to promote transparency and informed consumer decision making.

open here please:
Adverse Events Reports - Washington St Dept of Health




New database lets consumers track medical mistakes by hospital
By VANESSA HO
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Want to know the number of bed sores, patient falls and surgical errors at a hospital? You can now look them up.

The state Department of Health announced its new online database Thursday, which allows consumers to look up medical mistakes by hospital and date.

"Patient safety is our priority, and this information is a helpful tool," Secretary of Health Mary Selecky said in a statement.

"It helps facilities spot problems and find solutions to improve patient safety."

State law requires hospitals and medical facilities to report 28 types of serious errors, including bed sores, maternal deaths, contaminated drugs, electric shocks, sexual assaults, post-operative deaths, and patient disappearances and abductions.

From June 2006 to March 2010, the site shows there were 780 such errors, which are also called "adverse events." Bed sores led the way in mistakes, with more than 400 reported pressure ulcers. There were also 228 reported surgical mistakes, 75 falls, and 20 medication errors.

In Seattle, the site showed that Harborview Medical Center, which has 413 beds, had the leading number of bed sores for the reporting period, with 102 in a nearly four-year period.

The University of Washington Medical Center, which has 450 beds, reported 98 bed sores. Swedish Medical Center's 385-bed Cherry Hill campus reported five sores.

Cynthia Hecker at Harborview said the state number is an aggregated total that doesn't reflect Harborview's s improvement over time, or the fact that it is a Level 1 trauma center for the region.

"We inherently have a higher number of extremely sick patients coming from long distances that lead to an unfortunately higher level of what's called pressure ulcers," said Hecker, Harborview's chief nursing officer and a senior associate for patient care operations.

"We have a higher hill to climb right out of the gate."

She said the numbers a few years ago prompted a "call to action" at the hospital to prevent bed sores, an extremely painful and potentially fatal condition. That has led to a marked improvement.

"We have significantly decreased our numbers," she said.

The Department of Health's database follows a one posted earlier this year that showed rates of infection associated with ventilators and central lines.


Vanessa Ho can be reached at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com. Follow Vanessa on Twitter at twitter.com/vanessaho.

New database lets consumers track medical mistakes by hospital