More preventable mistakes made during surgical and invasive procedures are being reported in a large number of hospitals in Massachusetts despite an ongoing and extensive campaign to lessen such unnecessary errors from occurring.
In fact, according to a recent article by the Boston Globe, state data shows that hospitals in Massachusetts are likely to have nearly 100 surgical errors in 2012, a figure calculated based on the numbers from the first half of 2012. If the final data for 2012 matches this prediction, it will be a 65% increase from 2011.
Despite a campaign to reduce the number of medical errors made being set in motion in 1999 after an alarming report by the Institute of Medicine showed that unnecessary medical errors caused the death of several thousand patients, these numbers are the highest since Massaschusetts started recording this data. According to Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of Health Care Safety and Quality, this may be the result of hospitals discovering more errors and reporting them, rather than the number of actual errors actually increasing.
If you or someone you know has been injured as a result of a medical error in Massachusetts, get in touch with the legal team of Crowe & Harris, LLP , today by calling (617) 404-3417.