Improved patient safety and fewer mistakes at U.S. hospitals saved the lives of roughly 50,000 people from 2011 to 2013, the Obama administration reported Tuesday.
Incidents of hospital-induced harm – such as adverse drug events, infections, falls and bedsores – fell by 17 percent, or an estimated 1.3 million episodes, from 2010.
The improvements, driven by a number of public and private initiatives, saved an estimated $12 billion in health care spending, according to a new government report that found dramatic progress in the fight to curb preventable medical injuries at U.S. hospitals.
Of the estimated 50,000 fewer deaths, a decline in bedsores, or pressure ulcers, helped save roughly 20,300 lives. A drop in adverse drug events – such as overdoses or administering the wrong medication – saved another 11,500 lives.
Fewer falls by hospitalized patients saved 6,400 lives, the study found.
In a speech Tuesday in Baltimore, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the new HHS estimates represented "historic progress on health care quality."
"A 17 percent reduction in hospital-acquired conditions is a big deal, but it's only a start," Burwell said. "No American should ever lose his or her life, or spend the holidays in the hospital, because of a condition that could have been prevented."
Analysts from HHS looked at 18,000 to 33,000 medical records for each of the three years covered by the study. They estimate that nearly 10 percent of hospitalized patients in the U.S. experienced one or more of the numerous hospital-acquired conditions they were looking for.
"That rate is still too high," the report found.
Hospital-induced harm to patients has been a black cloud over the U.S. health care system for decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 2 million people each year suffer hospital-acquired infections, such as bloodstream and urinary tract infections from catheters.
In 2010, the government estimated that 27 percent of hospitalized Medicare patients sustained injuries associated with their care. Half of these patients had one or more episodes that either prolonged their hospital stays, caused permanent harm, required lifesaving interventions or resulted in death, HHS investigators found. About half the incidents were preventable.
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