To err is human, and when it comes to medicine, it's especially costly.

Up to 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors and, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Health Services Research (abstract) preventing mishaps during or after surgery could not only save patients from harm but also save the health care system close to $1.5 billion a year.

Using indicators of patient safety developed by AHRQ, the authors examined insurance claims data for seven categories of preventable adverse medical events—things that shouldn't happen if established guidelines of care were followed. They also looked at data over a three-month period to more accurately reflect the post-discharge costs of readmissions and deaths that occurred as result of a preventable error during or following the initial surgery.

Compared to patients who received appropriate care, the additional costs for patients who experienced the following medical errors were particularly dramatic:

• Acute Respiratory Failure—$28,218 (52 percent more)
• Infections due to medical care or sepsis (blood poisoning)—$19,480 (42 percent more)
• Nursing Sensitive events such as hip fractures or pressure ulcers—$12,196 (33 percent more)
• Metabolic Problems like kidney failure or uncontrolled blood sugar—$11,797 (32 percent more)
• Pulmonary and Vascular Problems such as blood clots and embolisms—$7,838 (25 percent more)

Reducing medical errors is an obvious goal for many reasons, but the authors of the study stress that their findings help to build the business case for health reform. The authors argue it's the purchasers who have the most leverage to encourage hospitals to invest in patient safety. As this study shows, they also have a lot to gain. Medicare and some private insurers have already announced they will stop paying for so-called "never events,"—things like operating on the wrong side or even the wrong patient.

Better quality care can be cheaper care, but real improvements in quality will only come from comprehensive reforms that provide incentives for better care and not just more care.

To err is human, but sustainable health reform, now that's divine. There will always be a risk of medical errors, but hopefully quality health care experiences like our colleague Joanne Kenen recently described can become the expectation of care rather than an exception to the rule.

(Hat tip to J.R. whose Larry David-like tenacity got us a hard copy of the HSR study from the computer labs of Georgetown with only one call to IT and one trip to the student ID office.)