The Economic Measurement of Medical Errors Sponsored by Society of Actuaries' Health Section Prepared By

METHODOLOGY 11 Identify probable and possible errors 11 Calculate the injury and error rates and extrapolate to the U.S. population 12 Establish a control group for each error group 13 Inpatient injuries 13 Outpatient injuries 14 Measure the medical cost difference per injury 15 Measure the mortality and disability cost difference per injury 15 Inpatient mortality cost difference per injury 16 Disability cost difference per injury 16 Pressure ulcers 17 Data reliance 19 RESULTS 20 Calculations example: postoperative infection 26 Injury frequency 26 Measurable medical cost of medical injury 27 Inpatient mortality cost of medical injury 28 Short-term disability cost of medical injury 31 Overall results 32 Detailed results by medical injury type 36 REFERENCES 37 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following individuals who supported this work with their time and expertise:  The SOA's Project Oversight Group worked through many of the difficult issues with us and guided decisions for methodology. The members of this group are listed below: