MPSMS data show sharp decline in patient harm from 2010 to 2014

Editor's Note

There were 2.1 million fewer patient harms between 2010 and 2014, resulting in thousands fewer accidental deaths and billions of dollars in health cost savings, finds this analysis of the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System (MPSMS).

The analysis found that from 2005 to 2011, the rate of adverse events declined by about 8% and 5% per year for patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure, respectively. However, there was no significant change in adverse events for patients with pneumonia or those who had been hospitalized for major surgery. 

The 1999 publication of To Err Is Human from the Institute of Medicine focused attention on the need to improve the safety of medical care and spurred a variety of public and private responses. Despite this attention, at the 10-year anniversary of that report, there was little evidence that safety had improved, and concern that progress in reducing patient harms in hospitals has been slow.