Hospitals not reporting medical errors

More than a decade after a landmark federal report revealed just how dangerous and mistake-prone hospitals can be, a new study has delivered a scary set of vital signs.

The report, by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that just one in seven errors and accidents in hospitals gets reported, a violation of the law. More than 130,000 Medicare patients were estimated to have experienced one or more adverse events in a single month.

These included things like errors in prescribing or giving medications, bedsores, hospital-acquired infections, delirium from too much painkiller and excessive bleeding caused by improperly administered blood thinners.