The JOURNAL of the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000 article written by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, shows that medical errors is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States.
The report apparently shows there are 2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery; 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals; 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals; 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals; 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications - these total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as the # 3 killer. Iatrogenic is a term used when a patient dies as a direct result of treatments by a physician, whether it is from misdiagnosis of the ailment or from adverse drug reactions used to treat the illness. (Drug reactions are the most common cause). Full text can be read at: http://www.arachnoiditis.info/news/news_story_0011.html The above findings of Dr Barbara Starfield, MD are also backed by: Myth: The U.S. has the best health care system in the world. Fact: The U.S. has among the worst health statistics of all rich nations. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm The National Academies website published an article titled "Preventing Death and Injury from Medical Errors Requires Dramatic, System-Wide Changes." which you can read online at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309068371?OpenDocument One of the first JAMA article on medical errors appeared in JAMA 1994;272:1851-7. by Leape LL. Then in April 1998, JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5 Schuster M, McGlynn E, Brook R. How good is the quality of health care in the United States? Milbank Q. 1998;76:517-563. Phillips D, Christenfeld N, Glynn L. Increase in US medication-error deaths between 1983 and 1993. Lancet. 1998;351:643-644. United States Now Has One of the Worst Infant Mortality Rates in the Developed World. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/445085/united_states_now_has_one_of_the_worst.html?cat=25 Preventable Deaths for selected countries. (U.S. Rated 14th). http://www.allcountries.org/ranks/preventable_deaths_country_ranks_1997-1998_2002-2003_2008.html Best regards, U. G. Barad On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 Santosh wrote ……..The fact is that there are many research papers in JAMA and elsewhere that support the statement in the journal "Effective Clinical Practice" that the numbers reported in Times of India are not accurate. Here is one such paper from JAMA itself, entitled: "Estimating Hospital Deaths Due to Medical Errors - Preventability Is in the Eye of the Reviewer": http://tinyurl.com/JAMArefutation The fact that the numbers are highly disputed can be seen also from a string of back and forth commentaries published in JAMA over the years. Here is one such commentary entitled, "Deaths Due to Medical Errors Are Exaggerated in Institute of Medicine Report": http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/284/1/93.extract Please note that lay newspaper reporters such as those of Times of India are invariably too medically ignorant, careless and/or intellectually lazy to write a comprehensive report on a technical issue such as this. They latch on to the first sensational story that they can kind, even if it is outdated as in the case of the WHO news item on the discredited JAMA commentary on a 1999 Institute of Medicine extrapolation. I only wish that educated readers would recognize this fact. Cheers, Santosh
