Racial Disparities in the Frequency of Patient Safety Events

Results From the National Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9104553
AutoresMark L Metersky (0000-0003-1968-1400, University of Connecticut, autor de correspondencia), David R Hunt (0000-0003-1316-3418, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology), Rebecca Kliman (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Yun Wang (0009-0006-5841-3627, Qualidigm (United States)), Maureen Curry (Qualidigm (United States)), Nancy Verzier (Qualidigm (United States)), Courtney H Lyder (University of California, Los Angeles), Ernest Moy (0000-0002-0681-6866, National Patient Safety Foundation)
Año2011
Volumen49
Número5
Páginas504-510
Fecha de publicación2011-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMedical Care (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0025-7079 • E-ISSN: 1537-1948
EditorialOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/mlr.0b013e31820fc218
PMID21494115
OpenAlexW2093965503
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4

BACKGROUND: Although there is extensive evidence of racial disparities in processes and outcomes of medical care, there has been limited investigation of disparities in patient safety. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there are racial disparities in the frequency of adverse events studied in the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: Abstraction of 102,623 randomly selected charts from hospital discharges of non-Hispanic white and black Medicare patients between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2007 to assess frequency of patient safety events in 4 domains: general (pressure ulcers and falls), selected nosocomial infections, selected procedure-related adverse events, and adverse drug events due to anticoagulants and hypoglycemic agents. MEASURES: Racial disparities in risk of patient safety events, and differences in adverse event rates among hospital groups stratified by percentage of black patients. RESULTS: Blacks had higher adjusted risk than whites of suffering one of the measured nosocomial infections (1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.55; P < 0.001) and one of the measured adverse drug events (1.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-1.40; P < 0.001). After adjustment for patient and hospital factors, patients in hospitals with the highest percentages of black patients were at increased risk of experiencing one of the measured nosocomial infections (1.9% vs. 1.5%; P < 0.001) and adverse drug events (8.7% vs. 7.8%; P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized blacks are at higher risk than whites of experiencing certain patient safety events. In addition, hospitals serving high percentages of black patients have higher risk-adjusted rates of selected patient safety events

Adverse effect · Confidence interval · Health care · Intensive care medicine · Patient safety · Emergency Medicine · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Nosocomial Infections in ICU · Patient Safety and Medication Errors · Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment