Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States

[donnay]

Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States

By Ariana Eunjung Cha May 3 at 6:30 PM

Nightmare stories of nurses giving potent drugs meant for one patient to another and surgeons removing the wrong body parts have dominated recent headlines about medical care. Lest you assume those cases are the exceptions, a new study by patient safety researchers provides some context.

Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday, shows that "medical errors" in hospitals and other health care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States -- claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer's.

Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research, said in an interview that the category includes everything from bad doctors to more systemic issues such as communication breakdowns when patients are handed off from one department to another.

"It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeing care," Makary said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...united-states/

[Working Poor]

I don't know why this does not get more attention from the population. Look at how a single gun shot death will get attention for weeks yet this gets big yawns and very little outrage. Swallowing a camel and straining on a gnat seems to be the order of these days. More people die each year than all the years of the present wars going on for the past 10 years...

[MelissaWV]

A big contributing factor to this is that it people are going to hospitals/facilities a lot more often, for dumber reasons. It taxes the system and ensures there's a lot more chance for something to go wrong.

The flip side is --- as in most other jobs that interact with the public, it seems --- there are way too many surly, entitled, lazy employees. The difference is that these employees are in charge of life/death decisions.

Barring some amazing hospital I've never heard of, I can't recall someone ever saying "the hospital stay was fine; nurses were attentive, cheerful, plentiful, and informative, and I saw the doctor a couple of times each day to update him on my care and have my questions answered. I was able to rest up and get better, and my room changes and discharge were processed timely." Nope, there are some universal gripes about hospital stays in the US, and they are universal for a reason. While most of that seems superficial, they all contribute to those deaths from medical errors.

[Anti Federalist]

A big contributing factor to this is that it people are going to hospitals/facilities a lot more often, for dumber reasons. It taxes the system and ensures there's a lot more chance for something to go wrong.

The flip side is --- as in most other jobs that interact with the public, it seems --- there are way too many surly, entitled, lazy employees. The difference is that these employees are in charge of life/death decisions.

Barring some amazing hospital I've never heard of, I can't recall someone ever saying "the hospital stay was fine; nurses were attentive, cheerful, plentiful, and informative, and I saw the doctor a couple of times each day to update him on my care and have my questions answered. I was able to rest up and get better, and my room changes and discharge were processed timely." Nope, there are some universal gripes about hospital stays in the US, and they are universal for a reason. While most of that seems superficial, they all contribute to those deaths from medical errors.

LOL - Just wait until government fully takes it over.

[tod evans]

LOL - Just wait until government fully takes it over.

NRMCGLAKES (Navy hospital) in the late 70's was a mess but even that government-run hospital surpassed the quality of care offered by all but the most prestigious civilian hospitals today...

Seems like as more reliance is placed on technology the humane factor drops proportionately....