Budget allocations increase despite declining health-related assertions
In a comprehensive analysis of the Italian healthcare system from 2014 to 2023, Aon, a leading company in insurance intermediation, has shed light on the cost and types of health incidents, and the evolution of these trends during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report categorizes health incidents by type, quantifying their economic impact within Italy. Surgical errors (29.4%), diagnostic errors (16.1%), and falls (8.2%) top the list of claims. Interestingly, the departments with the most claims are still Orthopedics and Traumatology (13.3%) and Emergency (11.1%), followed by Obstetrics and Gynecology (6.1%).
The highest claims were recorded in Obstetrics and Gynecology, with a surgical error costing €2.3 million in 2024 and a diagnostic error setting back €4 million.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant shift in the incidence and costs of health events, with infectious diseases (notably COVID-19) sharply increasing both in frequency and financial burden on the healthcare system. However, numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and 2023.
The burden of health incidents is heavily impacting the budgets of healthcare facilities, particularly for cases that close after several years. The average cost of a health incident has increased from 50,500 to 54,900 euros.
Andrea Parisi, CEO of Aon Italy and Eastern Mediterranean, is advocating for the widespread dissemination of best practices in risk management within the healthcare sector. New technologies, such as automated checklists, are being implemented in Italian hospitals to reduce human errors and improve patient safety.
The implementing decrees of Law 24/2017 encourage insurance companies to reduce premiums based on risk management activities and promote systemic incident analysis by individual facilities to encourage the spread of good practices.
Fortunately, the cost of health incidents may not be as impactful on healthcare budgets when these technologies are implemented, as they do not require overly restrictive fund reservation requirements.
Conciliatory mediation in healthcare remains a weak point in the dispute management process, as it fails to reach its primary goal of finding an agreement between parties and avoiding civil litigation in 92% of cases. There has been a decrease in disputes between 2014 and 2023: mediations (-21%), civil proceedings (-21%), and criminal proceedings (-8%).
Despite these challenges, the Italian healthcare system is grappling with dwindling funds and a challenging recovery post-Covid. The total cost of health incidents in Italy from 2014 to 2023 has exceeded 1.5 billion euros. However, the use of these technologies combined with clinical risk assessment strategies can help reduce the likelihood of incidents and safeguard doctors from liability.
The report, which discusses the evolution of health trends in Italy, also highlights the significance of new technologies like automated checklists in boosting patient safety by minimizing human errors in the medical field, specifically in the domain of health-and-wellness and technology. In the face of hefty healthcare costs, the implementation of these technologies, as per Andrea Parisi, CEO of Aon Italy and Eastern Mediterranean, could potentially alleviate the financial burden on healthcare facilities by lowering the cost of medical-conditions and other health incidents. Furthermore, the widespread adoption of best practices in risk management, as a result of these implementation decrees, could help decrease the total cost of health incidents in the future.
