Medical Errors are now the 3rd leading cause of death in the US according to a study by Dr. John T. James published in the Journal of Patient Safety

An article in September’s Scientific American described this issue in depth.

We all need to take note.  This is a problem of the medical system itself and does not mean that doctors and nurses have become substandard.  They have not.  The system itself is broken and not working to our advantage.

How many die from medical mistakes in US hospitals?  In 2010, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services reported that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in the Medicare hospital population alone in a given year.  The study in the Journal of Patient Safety disclosed that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year in the hospital “suffer some form of preventable harm that contributes to their death”. 

This is why RN Patient Advocates was started up 11 years ago.  

Dr. Lucien Leape, a Harvard pediatrician who conducted the first national study of deaths due to medical error (published in 1999) that identified 98,000 deaths a year in hospitals due to medical error, said that he has “full confidence” in the estimate by Dr. James.

Dr. David Mayer, the VP of Quality and Safety at MedStar Health said people can make arguments about how many patient deaths are hastened by poor hospital care, but that’s not really the point.  “All the estimated expose a crisis”. 

What can we do?  Knowledge is power.  Learn about your illness and the therapies available.  Work with a knowledgeable RN Patient Advocate to protect and guide you in the system, to advocate on your behalf, to focus exclusively on you so you do not fall through the cracks.