A new report from HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found 29 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in rehabilitation hospitals reported experiencing some form of harm during their stays.

OIG said it’s a similar patient harm rate as previously documented in acute care hospitals (27 percent) and skilled nursing facilities (33 percent). The report also said, however, that 46 percent of the incidents were “clearly or likely preventable,” such as medication errors, bedsores, constipation or falls.

Few of the events were severe. Out of 158 adverse events, 112 were classified as “temporary harm events,” while 33 resulted in a prolonged stay or a transfer to an acute care hospital. Those few incidents could be a big expense, with that additional care estimated to have cost Medicare $7.7 million in a single month.

Physicians who reviewed the incidents blamed the events on substandard treatment, inadequate patient monitoring and failure to provide needed treatment.

Because the results are similar to what was found in earlier reports on other types of facilities, OIG recommended CMS and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to apply lessons learned from those studies to rehab hospitals. It specifically asked for a list of adverse events beyond falls and bedsores that rehab hospital staff should be trained to identify, and recommended CMS include information on patient harm in its safety guidelines for rehab hospitals.

Ilene Cornia, president of the PULSE Center for Patient Safety Education and Advocacy, called the study “sobering reading,” and suggested the culture of these hospitals may be to blame.

“Unfortunately, when such incidents happen, there is no place for people to report this information without fearing retribution from medical staff,” Cornia said. “Too often the law won't follow through and the state doesn't respond.  Patients want to be cared for and when harm becomes part of the treatment, who is there to help?”