Patients with developmental disability at higher risk of preventable harm in hospitals, study finds

A study has found that people with developmental disability are up to three times more likely than other patients to experience preventable physical injuries in NHS hospitals in England.1Researchers at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Universitat de Barcelona analysed hospital admissions in the English NHS between April 2017 and March 2019 to examine the prevalence of five avoidable in-hospital patient safety incidents among adults with developmental disability.The paper, published in Health Affairs, found that across four groups (people with intellectual disability, chromosomal abnormalities, pervasive developmental disorders, and congenital malformation syndrome), cases of adverse drug reactions, hospital acquired infections, pressure ulcers, postoperative deep vein thrombosis, and postoperative sepsis led to an excess length-of-stay in hospital of 3.6-15.4 days and an increased mortality of between 1.4% and 15%.Particular risk was identified among patients with chromosomal abnormalities such as Down’s syndrome, who were 14.7% more likely to…
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