Medical error affects nearly 25% of Canadians

Medical errors in Canada are common, and there are significant regional disparities in how the health care system performs, according to a June 9 report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Health Care in Canada 2004, CIHI's annual report on the health care system, found almost 1 of every 4 Canadians (5.2 million people) say they or a family member has experienced a preventable, adverse event in 2003.

The adverse events range from receiving the wrong dose or type of medication, to having foreign objects left in the body after surgery. One in 9 adults with health problems said a health professional or hospital gave them the wrong medication or dosage, while 1 in every 6667 surgical patients had a foreign object left in their body. The errors are associated with 1.1 million extra days in hospital.

“Some errors can be avoided through simple solutions, such as marking a knee with a pen to ensure the correct knee is operated on,” said Dr. Indra Pulcins, manager of health indicators at CIHI. “Other possible solutions, such as implementing electronic prescribing to avoid medication errors, are more complex.”

There were substantial differences across Canada in some health performance indicators. In Nova Scotia, for example, 24.2% of patients who suffered a stroke died in hospital within 30 days, while in Alberta, the rate was 15.5%.

It's difficult to say why provinces perform differently, says Pulcins. “It may be related to the quality of care in hospital, or the medication that was prescribed, or whether or not the appropriate diagnostic workup was done. The statistic acts as a flag to the health region. If there is a high mortality rate, they can try to identify how to address it.” — Louise Gagnon, Ottawa