Hospital harms in Ontario add up to more than $1 billion in costs

A new study finds that medical harm done during hospitalizations in Ontario led to an added $1 billion in health care costs. Here’s more from the report:

• The study: Researchers looked at more than 610,000 adults who were hospitalized between April 2015 and March 2016. 
• The findings: Some 36,000 patients experienced some kind of harm during their stay, and the most common reason was a medication or treatment error. The added cost was more than $1 billion and more than 400,000 extra hospitalization days. 
• The takeaway: Reducing preventable harms could help avoid added costs to the health care system. Future research ought to look at how these harms affected patient outcomes, the researchers write.