Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in U.S. (1 Viewer)

[Deacon Blues]

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.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...hird-leading-cause-of-death-in-united-states/

 

[Big_L]

When I stated something similar in a police abuse thread . . .

Regardless, a lot of people do die going to the hospital.

 

[Terrence]

I work in medical sales, devices sold into hospitals. This article rings truth to me. When I started I was shaken enough to change lifestyle to avoid being in a hospital. As I travel the world for work, I see this problem is not completely owned by America. The points of this article on how to determine issues and needs complete yelling from the rafters. But if we try such, there are certain segments of the population will yell over reach of government and let the market handle it.

The worse place to be is a hospital but not just why are you are there but because of happens while you are there.

 

[Goatman Saint]

Oversight and accountability suck but are needed


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[guidomerkinsrules]

This sounds like an issue with the corporatization of "health"care

 

[sammymvpknight]

It doesn't take a lot to kill someone already on deaths doorstep. Trivial errors in the hospital can result in deaths. But doctors and nurses are still humans and will error. But without healthcare we wouldn't have to worry about people dying of medical errors...we could go back to people living into their 40s-50s before kicking it.