Most Common Medical Errors in Indiana in 2013

Top Indiana Medical Errors in 2013

For the past eight years, the Indiana State Department of Health has forced Indiana healthcare providers to report serious adverse events. This program was implemented in order to prevent these mistakes from happening in the future.

In 2013, 111 medical errors occurred at 293 facilities. Here are the most common medical errors in Indiana, ranked:

1. Bedsores. Once again, so-called pressure ulcers, acquired after a person is admitted, topped the list. An average of 32 stage three or four sores have occurred each year since the reporting system was implemented in 2002. In 2013, 45 incidents of serious bedsores were reported, more than in any other year since the report was first published.

2. Foreign objects. In some cases, surgeons are supposed to take things out of one's body. In others, they're supposed to put things in (think stents for clogged arteries). But on 27 occasions, surgeons in Indiana left a "foreign object" in a patient after surgery.

3. Surgeries on wrong body parts. On 13 occasions in the past year, an Indiana hospital performed surgery on the wrong body part, and in five cases, the fault was that of an ambulatory surgery center, for a total of 18 such incidents.

4. Serious falls. Each year, an estimated 700,000 to 1 million patients fall in hospitals. Of these, as many as half result in an injury. In Indiana however, only 12 were reported.

If you have been a victim of a medical or medication error, contact the medical malpractice lawyers at The Sweeney Law Firm for a Free Consultation.