As part of receiving Medicare payments from the federal government, hospitals are required to maintain records of all medical errors in order to improve care offered to patients.
A new study by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Daniel Levinson, reports that few preventable injuries or infections are actually reported as required. In fact, the report estimated that only about one in seven of the mistakes, accidents and errors that harm Medicare patients is identified and actually reported by hospital staff.
Levinson estimates that in a single month over 130,000 recipients of Medicare b