Health at a Glance 2011
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Health at a Glance 2011

OECD Indicators

This sixth edition of Health at a Glance provides the latest comparable data on different aspects of the performance of health systems in OECD countries. It provides striking evidence of large variations across countries in the costs, activities and results of health systems. Key indicators provide information on health status, the determinants of health, health care activities and health expenditure and financing in OECD countries.   Each indicator in the book is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.
Publication Date :
23 Nov 2011
DOI :
10.1787/health_glance-2011-en
 
Chapter
 

Obstetric trauma You or your institution have access to this content

Authors:
OECD
DOI :
10.1787/health_glance-2011-44-en

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Patient safety has recently become one of the most prominent issues in health policy, as increased evidence of a high rate of errors during the delivery of medical care has begun to undermine the trust that patients and policy makers have historically bestowed on the medical profession. As early as 1991, the landmark Harvard Medical Practice Study found that adverse events occur in 1 to 4% of all hospital admissions (Brennan et al., 1991). The US Institute of Medicine integrated the available evidence on medical errors and estimated that more people die from medical errors than from traffic injuries or breast cancer (Kohn et al., 2000). One recent Swedish study showed that over 12% of hospital admissions had adverse events, of which 70% were preventable, resulting in an increased length of stay of 6 days (Soop et al., 2009). The Council of the European Union adopted in 2009 a Recommendation on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections (European Union, 2009).
Also available in: French