liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
What can we learn from patient claims?: Analysing of patient injuries following orthopaedic surgery
Linköping University, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Health Technology Assessment and Health Economics. Linköping University, Faculty of Health Sciences. Östergötlands Läns Landsting, Center for Health and Developmental Care, Patient Safety.
Linköping University, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Thoracic Surgery. Linköping University, Faculty of Health Sciences.
Linköping University, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. Linköping University, Faculty of Health Sciences. Östergötlands Läns Landsting, Center for Surgery, Orthopaedics and Cancer Treatment, Department of Spinal Surgery.
Linköping University, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Health Care Analysis. Linköping University, Faculty of Health Sciences. Östergötlands Läns Landsting, Center for Health and Developmental Care, Patient Safety.
2012 (English)In: Patient Safety in Surgery, E-ISSN 1754-9493, Vol. 6, no 2, p. 1-6Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Objective data on the incidence and pattern of adverse events after orthopaedic surgical procedures remain scarce, secondary to the reluctance for encompassing reporting of surgical complications. The aim of this study was to analyze the nature of adverse events after orthopaedic surgery reported to a national database for patient claims in Sweden.

Methods: In this retrospective review data from two Swedish national databases during a 4-year period were analyzed. We used the "County Councils' Mutual Insurance Company", a national no-fault insurance system for patient claims, and the "National Patient Register at the National Board of Health and Welfare".

Results: A total of 6,029 patient claims filed after orthopaedic surgery were assessed during the study period. Of those, 3,336 (55%) were determined to be adverse events, which received financial compensation. Hospital-acquired infections and sepsis were the most common causes of adverse events (n = 741; 22%). The surgical procedure that caused the highest rate of adverse events was "decompression of spinal cord and nerve roots" (code ABC**), with 168 adverse events of 17,507 hospitals discharges (1%). One in five (36 of 168; 21.4%) injured patient was seriously disabled or died.

Conclusions: We conclude that patients undergoing spinal surgery run the highest risk of being severely injured and that these patients also experienced a high degree of serious disability. The most common adverse event was related to hospital acquired infections. Claims data obtained in a no-fault system have a high potential for identifying adverse events and learning from them.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. Vol. 6, no 2, p. 1-6
Keywords [en]
Insurance Claim Review, Medical Errors, Orthopaedics, Patient Safety, Patient Admission, Safety Management
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-72590DOI: 10.1186/1754-9493-6-2OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-72590DiVA, id: diva2:460186
Note

On the day of the defence date the status of this article was "Manuscript".

Available from: 2011-11-29 Created: 2011-11-29 Last updated: 2023-12-15Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Measures of Patient Safety: Studies of Swedish Reporting Systems and Evaluation of an Intervention Aimed at Improved Patient Safety Culture
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Measures of Patient Safety: Studies of Swedish Reporting Systems and Evaluation of an Intervention Aimed at Improved Patient Safety Culture
2012 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Unsafe health care delivery results in millions of patients suffering from injuries or death worldwide. A Swedish study estimated the prevalence of preventable adverse events as high as 8.6% in hospital care, which demonstrates that patient safety is no less a problem in Sweden than elsewhere. Reporting of adverse events has become an integral part of patient safety work. The aim of reporting is to identify patient safety problems and provide background data and information for efforts to improve patient safety. However, adverse events in health care can be captured and measured using different methods and stored in disparate systems that are not fully integrated. This makes it difficult to obtain a complete coherent picture of the frequency and nature of various types of adverse events. Another difficulty is to distinguish between adverse events and accepted complications of medical care.

The overall aim of this thesis is to generate knowledge for improved understanding of how patient safety can be measured in terms of reporting adverse events and improved by targeting patient safety culture with an intervention implemented in a Swedish county council. Three research questions have been derived from the aim: (1) To what extent can analysis of patient claims contribute to an understanding of the magnitude of the patient safety problem? (2) To what extent do data captured from different reporting systems in Sweden differ? (3) To what extent can a structured intervention that fosters learning on patient safety issues and encourages leadership commitment improve the patient safety culture in a Swedish county council from a five-year perspective?

The research is based on studies of three national reporting systems: Lex Maria to the National Board of Health and Welfare; patient claims to the County Councils´ Mutual Insurance Company; and medical data reported to the National Swedish Spine Register (Swespine). Data have also been assembled as part of an evaluation within the Patient Safety Dialogue intervention.

This thesis indicates that different Swedish reporting systems provide disparate views and have many discrepancies regarding data quality and coverage of adverse events. Patient claims seem to be an important source of information that can complement information from incident reporting systems and quality registries in health care to provide an understanding of the magnitude of the patient safety problem.

The research also shows that a structured intervention that fosters learning on patient safety issues and encourages leadership commitment can improve the culture of patient safety. However, a longer period of time and focused efforts might be required to achieve improvements across all departments within a Swedish county council.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2012. p. 85
Series
Linköping University Medical Dissertations, ISSN 0345-0082 ; 1267
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-72594 (URN)978-91-7393-043-7 (ISBN)
Public defence
2012-01-13, Berzeliussalen, Universitetssjukhuset, Campus US, Linköpings universitet, Linköping, 13:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2011-11-29 Created: 2011-11-29 Last updated: 2019-12-10Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(285 kB)385 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 285 kBChecksum SHA-512
89fa438a91dac51aaa5a3bf30a0a1c908eccc9ef545396b7ba96b867bf36bc6da0615759ce64e52b44ebdfa70783b12f9fe54c4218d06dc4ebd96a888de07022
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Öhrn, AnnicaElfström, JohanTropp, HansRutberg, Hans

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Öhrn, AnnicaElfström, JohanTropp, HansRutberg, Hans
By organisation
Health Technology Assessment and Health EconomicsFaculty of Health SciencesPatient SafetyThoracic SurgeryDepartment of Clinical and Experimental MedicineDepartment of Spinal SurgeryDivision of Health Care Analysis
In the same journal
Patient Safety in Surgery
Medical and Health Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 385 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 491 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf