Medical Errors Affect 1 in 10 Patients

Posted on May 20, 2007

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1 in 10 patients worldwide are affected by medical errors. WHO has recently released a nine point checklist that it hopes will help doctors and nurses avoid simple mistakes. The list includes things like double-checking similar medication names, ensuring patients are correctly identified, and improving hand hygiene. WHO figures indicate that 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from hospital-acquired infections at any given time. American treatment is markedly better than the worldwide average, as only one in every 136 patients will become severely ill as a result of an infection caught in a hospital.