Today's startling news from the Washington Post is that the cost of medical errors has been quantified. The estimated 238,337 potentially preventable deaths of U.S. Medicare patients, between 2004 and 2006, cost the Medicare program $8.8 billion. This was according to the fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study.

That princely sum doesn't take into account the costs of preventable deaths of patients insured under programs other than Medicare.

We're talking a lot of money! And where there are potential cost savings to be had, there MUST be an entrepreneurial opportunity for a smart group of physicians.

Given that much of the financial burden will fall on hospitals (beginning October 1, they will no longer be paid for those hospital days that accrue as a result of iatrogenic complications), I bet your local hospital will be eager to partner with an enterprising physician or group of physicians, and find a legal way to share the cost savings!

What device, or program, or approach could you develop that would help decrease the incidence of DVTs, bedsores, wound infections, post-op respiratory failure, falls, or post-op hemorrhage? (here is the list of patient safety indicators from the Distinguished Hospital Award - Patient Safety site.

It's time to put your creative problem-addressing thinking caps on -- there is an opportunity to make a substantial difference here, and hopefully profit appropriately from your "invention" as well!