NOTES ON NURSING
Twin Cities Nurses Ratify Contract Although negotiations between nurses and hospitals in 2010 featured a loud
public debate over nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, the parties didn’t debate
the issue this time.
HEALTH CARE
In Their Own Words: Health Care Industry Leader: “Hospital Care 3,000 Times Less Safe Than Air Travel” “The Harvard Medical Practice Study (of 1991) showed that 1% of hospital patients were injured due to errors judged… to be negligent. That’s a death or injury rate of 10,000 per million. The U.S. airline comparative number is 341 people dead or injured in 95.2 million flights, U.S. hospital care is 3,000 times less safe than U.S. air travel, or 3.6 per million. By this measure, hospital care is almost 3,000 times less safe than air travel.”
Hospitals Pay $1.3 Billion for “Never Events” the study counted 80,000 “never event” episodes that resulted in hospital payouts of about $1.3 billion between 1990 and 2010.