Current Research on the
Impact of Patient Safety
on Medical Costs
Avoidable medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States and
approximately half of the costs of these medical errors are caused by hospitals that
are largely paid the same amount whether there is a complication or not. Therefore,
hospitals have a financial incentive to prevent avoidable medical errors such as
hospital acquired infections, surgical complications, medication errors, and pressure
ulcers, which cost hospitals approximately $11.9M per 100,000 admissions. Enabled by
patient safety platforms, proven interventions such as checklists and counting surgical
equipment can substantially reduce these errors by about 41% across all error types,
resulting in potential savings of $4.8M per 100,000 admissions per year.
Adam E. Block, PhD
Principal, Charm Economics, LLC
Principal Adam E. Block, PhD brings two decades of health care industry,
government, and academic research experience to solve business problems.
He has deep relationships in managed care contracting, hospital finance,
actuarial science, and clinical medicine that can be salient to your project.
