Summary of OIG Reports on Adverse Events.

•   "During a 1-month period, OIG found that 13.5 percent (of Medicare Patients) experienced adverse events and that for 1.5 percent of beneficiaries, these adverse events contributed to their deaths. An additional 13.5 percent of beneficiaries in the sample experienced temporary harm as a result of their medical care, bringing the total percentage of beneficiaries experiencing instances of care-related harm to 27 percent. Nearly half (44 percent) of these adverse or temporary harm events were preventable." OIG determined that the costs to Medicare associated with adverse and temporary harm events totaled an estimated $324 million for 1 month alone. This would equate to an estimated $4.4 billion per year." Read more about this report here.

•  "Yet, OIG found that hospital staff did not report 86 percent of events to incident reporting systems." "Just 12 percent of the temporary harm or adverse events that occurred in hospitals met State requirements for reporting; in other words, only 35 of the events in the sample were required to be reported to the State reporting systems. Hospitals actually reported just three of these events, all in Pennsylvania. Many of the events not reported as required involved serious harm, including six patient deaths."  Read more here.