According to a recent report conducted by a consulting firm, medical errors in the United States account for $19.5 billion in medical costs and lead to 2,500 deaths. Additionally, such errors result in more than 10 million days of missed work due to disability. This research was based on data obtained for the year 2008.

The researchers defined a medical error as "a preventable adverse outcome of medical care that is a result of improper medical management (a mistake of commission) rather than a progression of an illness due to lack of care (a mistake of omission."

The researchers evaluated the economic impact of medical errors by identifying those errors, calculating the medical costs per injury and measuring the cost of inpatient mortality and short-term disability per injury.

In 2008, 6.3 million injuries were reported. Of those injuries, 1.5 million were medical errors which cost an estimated $19.5 billion. Of this $19.5 billion, 87 percent, or $17 billion, resulted directly from inpatient, outpatient and prescription drug services to patients who were victims of a medical error.

Medical errors related to pressure ulcers were the most common and accounted for the most costs, with 374,964 such events and a cost of $3.9 billion per year. Other common errors stemmed from post-op infections, hemorrhages, ventral hernias, and infections resulting from infusions, injections, vaccinations and transfusions.

Researchers also gathered information about the indirect costs associated with mortality rates. For patients who were victims of medical errors, these costs were estimated to be $1.4 billion. Further, as a result of short-term disability claims, the cost of loss of productivity was estimated to be $1.1 million. 

Specifically, researchers estimated that the total costs associated with measurable mortality was about $1.4 billion, with inpatient errors accounting for $1.1 million and outpatient errors accounting for $302.85 million. However, researchers warned that limited data was utilized in the projections and the costs could have been underestimated.

Source: CMIO "Report: Hospital errors soak up $19.5B, lead to 2,500 excess deaths" 8/10/10