Medication errors up
January 20, 2012
RESULTS from the South
Australian Patient Safety Report
2010-2011 show the number of
medication errors in the state’s
public hospitals doubled between
2009/10 and 2010/11.
The Report detailed the number
of serious incidents or ‘sentinel
events’ in the state’s hospitals and
revealed that in 2010/11 there were
two medication errors leading to
death, as opposed to one in 2009/10.
Maternal death rates were however
down from five to three, as were inpatient
suicide rates which were
down from five to two, whilst the
number of retained instruments
stayed the same between both
periods, at three.
“Each year, more than two million
services are provided in our public
hospitals and staff do an
outstanding job protecting the
safety of their patients,” said South
Australian Health Minister, John Hill.
“However, diagnosing and
treating very sick or injured people
is complex and unfortunately there
are occasions where something
goes wrong,” he added.
Hill said that the system had
experienced “considerable progress”
in a number of other areas of
patient safety including improved
hand hygiene rates, new guidelines
for staff handovers and initiatives
to reduce the risk of patients being
injured by falls.
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