JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,753
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This is a very interesting piece of research.
Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States
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 seeking care," Makary said...
Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't require reporting of errors in the data it collects about deaths through billing codes, making it hard to see what's going on at the national level.
The CDC should update its vital statistics reporting requirements so that physicians must report whether there was any error that led to a preventable death, Makary said.
"We all know how common it is," he said. "We also know how infrequently it’s openly discussed."
I have had my own experience with medical malpractice, but the tort laws in Virginia prevent me from recovering anything close to what would bother an incompetent physician. At a $100,000 cap, the lawyers down here only take sure wins with a clean track record, because they cannot afford to risk the losses on complicated cases.
But medical malpractice is huge and the insurance high because of the INCOMPETENCE more than the affect of ambulance chasing lawyers.
Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States
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 seeking care," Makary said...
Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't require reporting of errors in the data it collects about deaths through billing codes, making it hard to see what's going on at the national level.
The CDC should update its vital statistics reporting requirements so that physicians must report whether there was any error that led to a preventable death, Makary said.
"We all know how common it is," he said. "We also know how infrequently it’s openly discussed."
I have had my own experience with medical malpractice, but the tort laws in Virginia prevent me from recovering anything close to what would bother an incompetent physician. At a $100,000 cap, the lawyers down here only take sure wins with a clean track record, because they cannot afford to risk the losses on complicated cases.
But medical malpractice is huge and the insurance high because of the INCOMPETENCE more than the affect of ambulance chasing lawyers.
