medical harm

medical harm

Uninintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment), which requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalisation, or results in death. Such injury is considered harm whether or not it is considered preventable, whether or not it resulted from a medical error, and whether or not it occurred within a hospital. Medical harm does not imply intent or negligence, nor does it indicate severity of the harm. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 15 million instances of medical harm occur per year in the USA.