Minimizing Hospital Risks: Patient Safety Organizations in Rhode Island

According to a study by the Institute of Medicine, nearly 100,000 patients die and another 1 million are injured each year due to medical errors. While the United States arguably provides the highest standard of medical care available, the study revealed that there is still substantial room for improvement.

In 2005, Congress established Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) to review hospital mistakes that resulted in harm to patients. Medical mistakes can happen a variety of ways, including:

• An object being left behind after a procedure
• An infection resulting from treatment
• Improper or incorrect prescription by the treating physician
• Illegible notes on a patient chart resulting in a nurse misreading the dosage or other medication errors
• Unsafe patient restraint or transport leading to falls and/or broken bones
• Unknown patient allergies to medication or equipment

These medical mistakes can have a variety of results: from short-term and treatable harms to long-term and permanent injuries. Sometimes a hospital’s negligence could even result in death.

The mission of a PSO is to analyze data collected from participating hospitals to determine what went wrong when medical mistakes occur and what can be done to prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future.