Parent Alert: Children’s Hospital's Not-So-Secret Secret

I have to say I was quite amazed to find this academic journal article as I was doing research to help us form our Parents Network effort.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics
Article: Use of Incident Reports by Physicians and Nurses to Document Medical Errors in Pediatric Patients
Location of Research: Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle
Date: September 2004

Researchers' Conclusions: The majority of medical errors committed by physicians and nurses during the care of pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s Hospitals are never reported. Fewer than half in the study report 80% or more of the errors they make; one third of the respondents say they report fewer than 20% of the errors.

Implications: In 2001 (year of the study) 2,506 incident reports were filed at CHRMC. This is equivalent to 11.4 incidents per bed per year – roughly an incident per month in every bed in the hospital. If half of the incidents are unreported, the error rate at Children’s is equivalent to a significant medical error once every two weeks in every bed in the hospital. Statistically, if your child is an inpatient at Children’s for two weeks, a significant medical error was made and odds are that it was never reported by the healthcare professional and never reported to you. We have to wonder -- if those willing to participate in the study admit to not reporting errors...what about those that chose not to participate?

Message to all parents of children at Children's: Let's fix this! I need your help. Email me at fred@fredwhittlesey.com