Improvements in Adverse Event Rates Among Hospitalized Patients

To the Editor I have some concerns about the Editorial that was written about our recent article. First, the Editorial stated that “…patients may be less convinced that risk-adjusted annual declines of 6% in the rates of acute myocardial infarction or pneumonia, for instance, imply that hospitals are adequately safer today.” However, our study did not address findings related to the rates of acute myocardial infarction or report a decrease of 6% in pneumonia. We addressed adverse events experienced by 5 groups of patients, and 2 of the 5 groups were patients with acute myocardial infarction and pneumonia. It appears that the Editorial authors incorrectly described these 2 patient groups as 2 of the 21 adverse event measures in our study.