April 9, 2001 – Iatrogenic accidents, that is, unfortunate events directly related to the provision of a service or intervention in a hospital setting, are a common occurrence. In Australia, it has been estimated that 16% of hospitalized patients would be victims of such accidents and that 51% of these accidents could have been prevented.
In the United States, an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year are directly caused by therapeutic intervention in an acute hospital. In Quebec, the health network does not keep any statistics on accidents that occur in hospitals, but a report by a ministerial committee of the Quebec government affirms that “accidents in hospitals have, dubious privilege, the nature, the l ‘magnitude and severity of an epidemiological problem’. All things considered, the situation would not be so different in Quebec.
According to Dr. Denis R. Roy, spokesperson for the committee, professional misconduct is responsible for only 15% of preventable accidents, the vast majority of them being caused by “the system”.
In an attempt to remedy the situation and correct the silence that reigns over this problem in the healthcare network, the committee recommends, among other things, that the disclosure of errors in the provision of care be made mandatory and that non-disclosure be considered as a act derogating from the code of ethics of health professionals.
At the same time, the committee recommends studying the possibility of setting up a no-fault compensation scheme for victims of medical errors. This regime would compensate many more people than the current system which requires victims to embark on a very long and very expensive legal process, financially and emotionally inaccessible to the majority of victims. Currently, the Canadian Medical Protective Association only compensates about 100 people a year, while it is estimated that over 9,000 people are victims of negligent care.
HealthPassport.net
According to Medical News, April 4, 2001
Risk management, a priority for the network – Ministerial committee report (PDF document to download)
