The researchers examined data on compensation payments and sentinel events from 2003, when New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center implemented an obstetric patient safety program. They found that the 2003-2006 average yearly compensation payments of $27.6 million decreased to average payments of $2.6 million between 2007 and 2009. Five sentinel events in 2000 were reduced to none in 2008 and 2009.
Read the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology abstract on an obstetric patient safety program’s effect on compensation payments.
Read more coverage on patient safety:
– Study: Patient Safety Program Can Improve Safety Climate
– DEA, FDA Investigate St. Cloud Hospital Nurse Suspected of Causing Infection in 23 Patients