3 in 10 Canadians Report Medical Errors; 2nd Highest Among 6 Countries

By BETH GORHAM

WASHINGTON (CP) – Canadians reported the second highest level of medical mistakes, just behind the United States, in an international survey of six countries released Thursday.

The Commonwealth Fund study noted that 34 per cent of Americans had errors with their care, got the wrong medication or dose, received incorrect test results or weren’t notified promptly about abnormal results.

Canada came in at 30 per cent while the lowest was the United Kingdom at 22 per cent. The study also included Australia at 27 per cent, New Zealand 25 per cent and Germany at 23 per cent.

More than half of people from all countries said the mistakes took place outside hospitals.

The study said only 23 per cent of Canadians, the lowest of the six countries, reported being able to see their doctor quickly. Thirty-six per cent of Canadians, the highest number, waited six days or more.

The four other countries with more physician access had significantly lower rates of emergency room use.

The Commonwealth Fund is a private, endowed foundation formed in 1918 which supports independent research on health care issues.

Canadians also reported difficulty getting after-hours care, at 54 per cent.

One-fifth of Canadians and a quarter of Americans who reported going to emergency rooms said it was for a condition that could have been treated by their regular doctor.

Overall, 78 per cent of the 750 Canadians surveyed last spring said the country’s health care system needs to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt, the highest of any country except Germany.

Ian Shugart, Canada’s senior assistant deputy health minister, said the lack of availability of doctors is a “pointed problem.”

“If people had improved access to a physician, their appetite for fundamental change in the system would diminish very, very substantially,” he told a news conference.

“The use of emergency rooms is very substantially determined by the availability of other options.”

Canadian studies have already highlighted the high cost of medical errors in hospitals. The Canadian Institute for Health Information said in June that mistakes are causing longer hospital stays and clogging beds, with as many as 1.1 million hospital days spent fixing the problems.

The international survey shows that greater attention needs to be paid to medical errors outside hospitals, said the authors.

“There were many symptoms of poorly co-ordinated care in every country, regardless of the type of delivery or financing system,” said lead author Cathy Schoen.

“Shortfalls were particularly evident for people when discharged from the hospital and for patients seeing multiple physicians.”

Among other findings:

-Twenty-six per cent of Canadians said prohibitive costs caused them to skip treatment or tests, fail to visit a doctor or not have prescriptions filled. The highest cost-related access problems were reported in the United States, at 51 per cent.

-Thirty-three per cent of Canadians said they waited more than four months for elective surgery. The United States, at 41 per cent, was higher.

– Forty-one per cent said they didn’t get clear instructions when discharged from hospital.

-Twenty-one per cent said the risks of a hospital procedure weren’t explained in an understandable way.

-Sixteen per cent were readmitted to a hospital or went to emergency rooms for complications after being discharged.

The study is the eighth annual look at health care experience in the six countries. Of those surveyed, half had been hospitalized and one-third had major surgery.

It highlights the need for improved co-ordination of care and the need for greater use of nurse practitioners, dieticians, pharmacists and others, said Shugart.

“For Canada, the integration of the system across a wide range of settings and professionals is the major takeaway lesson from this survey, as indeed it has been in previous years.”