Medical errors cost the U.S. economy an estimated $19.5 billion in 2008, according to a study commissioned by the Society of Actuaries.
Seattle-based consulting firm Milliman Inc. compiled medical claims data to provide a measurement of costs for avoidable medical injuries.
The study’s researchers found that of the approximately $80 billion in costs from medical injuries, around 25 percent resulted from avoidable errors.
The study only looked at the "measurable costs" of medical errors, including "increased medical costs, costs related to increased mortality rates and costs related to lost productivity of an error."
“We used a conservative methodology and still found 1.5 million measurable medical errors occurred in 2008,” said Milliman consultant Jonathan Shreve, who co-wrote the report, said in a prepared statement.
The study found that lost productivity due to related short-term disability claims contributed to $1.1 billion of the total, which translates to more than 10 million excess days missed from work due to short-term disability. Measurable medical errors also resulted in more than 2,500 avoidable deaths; $1.4 billion was lost from increased death rates among the victims of those mistakes.
The study found that there were 6.3 million measurable medical injuries in the U.S. in 2008. SOA and Milliman estimates associate 1.5 million of those injuries with errors. The average total cost per error was about $13,000.
Shreve said that the total economic impact of medical errors is likely greater than the numbers indicate, because the report only includes errors that Milliman could identify through claims data.
The study found that approximately 55 percent of the total error costs were the result of five common errors:
- Pressure ulcers
- Postoperative infections
- Mechanical complications from devices, implants, or grafts
- Postlaminectomy syndrome
- Hemorrhages complicating a procedure
Medical errors, and the malpractice lawsuits that often follow, are among the hotly debated issues related to healthcare reform. Newly tapped, and somewhat controversial, CMS head Donald Berwick founded the not-for-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in part to help reduce medical errors.
