A "patient safety event" is any event or action that could lead to a worse outcome for a patient—bedsores, post-operative respiratory failure, post-operative deep vein thrombosis, etc. How often do hospital patients experience multiple patient safety events (MPSEs)?
- 1 in 1000 hospitalizations result in MPSEs.
- An MPSE increases the hospital stay by 400% and increases costs by 800%.
- The patient most likely to experience MPSEs is an older black man on Medicare living in a low median-income ZIP code.