OFFICE OF , INSPECTOR GENERAL of US Department of Health and Human Services, released a report on the national incidence of adverse events for hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries, the preventability of such events, and associated costs to Medicare.

The report released last month month found that one in seven of the patients experienced an adverse event such as excessive bleeding, a hospital-acquired infection or aspiration pneumonia. Those events, both preventable and not preventable, led to about 180,000 deaths a year.

The complete report available at

http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00090.pdf