Hospital Error Rate Remains High

March 10, 2003 Hospital Error Rate Remains High Numerous recent publications document a high rate of fatal hospital errors.  A study done in the early 1980s by the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration showed that, for patient medication alone, the average hospital had a 12% daily error rate and 10% of all cardiac arrests in hospitals are attributable to medication errors.  According to the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err Is Human: Building A Safer Health System: As many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals each year as the result of medical errors Massachusetts . . .