N.Y. Hospitals Among Worst for Errors

By James T. Mulder, Staff writer

New York ranks as one of the worst states in the nation for hospital patient safety, according to a study released today that found high rates of medical errors at hospitals here.

New Jersey was the only state that fared worse in the study by HealthGrades, which analyzed the prevalence of patient safety incidents at every U.S. hospital.

The risk of experiencing one or more of 13 patient safety incidents, such as post-surgical infections, was nearly 24 percent higher in New York than in Minnesota, the top-ranked state, according to the study.

Medical errors continue to be a leading cause of death and injury nationwide and hospitals are not moving fast enough to improve patient safety, according to the study. "Progress is too slow and should be cause for great alarm," it said.

The study is based on an analysis of Medicare patients at nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide from 2002 through 2004. HealthGrades used 13 patient safety indicators developed by the federal government to evaluate hospital admissions. HealthGrades is a publicly traded company that rates hospitals, nursing homes and doctors, and sells its ratings reports to the public.

William VanSlyke, speaking for the Healthcare Association of New York, which represents hospitals, called the report "misleading."

He said New York reports hospital patient safety incidents more aggressively than other states, which could be why it ranks so low in the study. He also questioned the accuracy of the report because it is based on data culled from billing information, not clinical data.

VanSlyke said his group will closely analyze the report to determine if there are patient care issues that need to be addressed.

Art Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers in New York City was surprised by the findings and said the study should be taken seriously.

"Hospital reputations tend to be built on superstar physicians and superstar departments, and it's not based on empirical evidence," he said. "This study tells us maybe that's not the way to do it."

Levin said the state Health Department should be using the same data to compare patient safety performance of New York hospitals.

The study did not explain why New York performed so poorly. "Significant state-to-state variations in overall patient safety indicator performance exist," it said. "The gap between the best possible care and actual care remains large."

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Kansas ranked as the best states for patient safety.

Joining New Jersey and New York at the bottom of the list are Nevada, Tennessee and the District of Columbia.

In the study, HealthGrades identified 238 U.S. hospitals with the best patient safety records. Only one New York hospital made the list - St. Peter's Hospital, in Albany.

The most prevalent patient safety incidents nationwide were: failure to save a patient's life who has acquired a complication in the hospital ("failure to rescue"), bedsores and bloodstream infections.

New York had 162.8 failure-to-rescue incidents per 1,000 patients between 2002 and 2004. Only Hawaii had more - 175.3 incidents per 1,000 patients. By comparison, Minnesota had 95.8 failure-to-rescue incidents per 1,000 patients.

The prevalence of bedsores in New York was 46.3 per 1,000 patients, the highest of any state. That rate was nearly three times higher than Minnesota's.

New York had 11.6 bloodstream infections per 1,000 patients compared to 6.9 per 1,000 in Minnesota.

Between 2002 and 2004, about one in four hospitalized Medicare patients who experienced a patient safety incident died, according to the study. About 82 percent of those deaths were potentially preventable, the study said.

The complete report can be found at www.healthgrades.com.

You can contact James T. Mulder at 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com.

Read the Healthgrades report at http://www.healthgrades.com/media/dms/pdf/PatientSafetyInAmericanHospitalsStudy2006.pdf