Over 2,200 medical treatment errors confirmed

Number of medical malpractice remains about constant
In 2014, the expert panels and mediation boards of the medical associations confirmed a malpractice in more than 2,200 cases involving suspicion of a medical malpractice. This was announced by the German Medical Association (BÄK) on Monday in Berlin. Accordingly, among other things, the increasing workload of nurses and doctors is the cause of treatment errors. Compared to the previous year, the number remained about constant.

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Enormous workload of nurses and doctors can lead to treatment errors
"Doctors and nurses are working on the limit - and sometimes even a bit beyond that," said Andreas Crusius, chairman of the Standing Conference of Advisory Commissions and Arbitration Boards of the BÄK. Among other things, the enormous workload and the pressure to make quick decisions in an emergency would lead to "special risk constellations in the healthcare system".

In addition, the number of outpatient treatment cases in Germany increased by 157 million from 2004 to 2013 to almost 700 million. For inpatient cases, the number increased from 2004 to 2012 by 1.8 million to 18.6 million. "The number of detected errors is in comparison to the total number of outpatient and inpatient treatment cases in the per thousand range," reports the BÄK.

In the past year, the most frequent cases of treatment errors were knee and hip arthrosis and forearm fractures. In 398 cases, a treatment error or lack of awareness was found, but this did not result in any damage to health. (Ag)