Back in 1999 the Institute of Medicine concluded that 98,000 people per year were dying in hospitals because of preventable, human error. Now, 14 years later, the news isn’t good. According to a study conducted by a respected medical journal, more than 400,000 people die each year from medical mistakes. The new numbers are the result of better technology, record-keeping and information retrieval visit this page.
Third only to heart disease and cancer, deaths from medical mistakes now dwarfs the number of deaths of auto accidents, diabetes and other big killers.
Basically, we’re killing off huge populations of the American public each year.
“That means hospitals are killing off the equivalent of the entire population of Atlanta one year, Miami the next, then moving to Oakland, and on and on. What do these errors look like? The sponge left inside the surgical patient, prompting weeks of mysterious, agonizing abdominal pain before the infection overcomes bodily functions. The medication injected into a baby’s IV at a dose calculated for a 200 pound man. The excruciating infection from contaminated equipment used at the bedside.” ~ Dr. Lucian Leape, Harvard University Medical School.
You can read more about the study and report here.
