Statistics: Thousands of treatment errors discovered in clinics and medical practices

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Experts assume that the number of unreported medical errors is high (symbol image)

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Botched operations, overlooked fractures, damaged implants, mixed-up medicines: in Germany's hospitals and medical practices, there were again thousands of treatment errors in the past year.

This is the result of figures from the “Bund Medical Service”, which were presented in Berlin on Thursday.

According to this, the expert organization examined a total of 13,050 suspected cases in 2021, with 3665 treatment errors being discovered.

Conversely, this means: In 71.9 percent of the suspected cases examined, no treatment error could be determined.

According to the report, the registered number is at a largely unchanged level.

However, the chairman of the medical service (MD), Stefan Gronemeyer, assumes that the number of unreported cases is high.

The actual number of cases is “most likely many times over”.

Experts see a need for action

As in previous years, most of the accusations related to orthopedics and trauma surgery, at around 30 percent.

According to the MD, an accumulation of allegations in a specialist area says nothing about the actual error rate or safety.

Rather, patients would be able to better recognize errors in surgical procedures.

The effects of treatment errors on the affected patients are very different: In two out of three cases of damage, the damage was only temporary.

In 6.8 percent of cases, however, there was severe permanent damage such as blindness or the need for care, and in 3.8 percent of cases the treatment error resulted in death.

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Gronemeyer is particularly concerned about the 130 so-called "never events".

This is how particularly blatant treatment errors are described - for example when the healthy knee is accidentally operated on or surgical instruments are left in the body.

"Never Events are rare individual events," said Gronemeyer.

"However, they play a special role in the safety culture." Therefore, the introduction of a nationwide reporting obligation for such events is necessary.

This is in the interests of both the patients and the doctors.

"Both sides must be able to rely on high-quality care in which safety comes first," said Gronemeyer.

However, a prerequisite for a functioning system is the possibility of reporting such incidents anonymously and confidentially.

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The federal government's patient officer, Stefan Schwartze (SPD), supports the creation of a national register for the anonymous recording of Never Events.

On this basis, necessary preventive measures could be derived.

"Especially in medical care, it will never be possible to completely avoid all errors," said Schwartze.

But behind every treatment error there is a person with a personal destiny.

The top priority must therefore be to avoid mistakes as much as possible.

Eugen Brysch from the German Foundation for Patient Protection added: "Only comprehensive statistics show quickly and transparently where things are going wrong and where countermeasures are effective."

If insured persons suspect treatment errors, they can contact experts and mediators from the doctors and the health insurance companies, who then commission reports.

An error is when treatment does not meet the recognized standard, i.e. is not appropriate, careful, correct and timely.

mar/dpa/AFP