Temporal trends in rates of patient harm from medical care.

摘要

to the editor: Landrigan et al. (Nov. 25 issue) report a frightening 25% rate of "patient harms per 100 admissions," most expected to have a limited deleterious effect. Interestingly, the rate of the reviewers' agreement about the "presence of harm" ranged from 75 to 81%. Without comparison with "harms" that do not involve hospital admission or a specific description of "causative" events, these numbers further appear without index or validation. Patients arrive with serious problems, and most "harms" result from this illness or as effects of treatments.