Trends in Adverse Event Rates in Hospitalized Patients, 2010-2019.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality and Safety
• Medical Informatics
• Public Health

Background:

• Patient safety is a critical national priority in the US.
• Despite its importance, a comprehensive assessment of patient safety progress over the last decade is lacking.
• Understanding trends in adverse events is crucial for evaluating healthcare quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the change in the rate of adverse events among hospitalized patients in the US.
• To assess the progress in patient safety over a ten-year period (2010-2019).

Main Methods:

• A serial cross-sectional study utilizing data from the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System (2010-2019).
• Included 244,542 adult patients across 3156 US acute care hospitals, focusing on four condition groups and 'all other conditions'.
• Adverse events were categorized into four domains: drug events, hospital-acquired infections, post-procedure events, and general adverse events.

Main Results:

• Significant decreases in adverse event rates were observed for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and major surgical procedures.
• For 'all other conditions', adjusted adverse event rates also significantly decreased between 2012 and 2019.
• Risk-adjusted rates for adverse drug events, hospital-acquired infections, and general adverse events declined significantly across all studied patient groups.

Conclusions:

• The study indicates a significant reduction in adverse events for major conditions and other conditions in US hospitals between 2010 and 2019.
• These findings suggest positive trends in patient safety, though further research is recommended to fully understand the extent of these changes.
• The observed decreases in specific adverse event types highlight areas of improvement in hospital care quality.