Medical errors

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What If Medicine Disappeared? Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts

The report asserted that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 88,000 people per year (the sixth to the eighth leading cause of death), more than killed by automobiles.5 Most errors involved the inappropriate administration of medication. Several medical experts challenged the study, claiming that the findings were grossly exaggerated. Yet research in 2002 corroborated the estimate, claiming that "fully 34% of all doctors said that either they or members of their family had experienced serious medical errors... with serious health consequences."6 Nor is our list complete.

Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

A new survey shows that patients usually don't say anything—which puts them at risk for medical errors. Patients were more likely to speak up about possible medication mistakes than about possible incorrect diagnoses or inappropriate treatments. Helpful: Affirm your respect for the doctor's position and competence before suggesting that he/she may have made an error. Joseph Grenny, president, VitalSmarts, a research and training firm, Provo, UT, and coauthor of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. McGraw-Hill.

Health Begins in the Colon Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN See book keywords and concepts

Every year, over 2 million people suffer from adverse drug reactions (ADR's) and other medical errors while in the hospital. Nearly 1 million deaths result from this malpractice annually.88 • Every year, up to 20 million people are unnecessarily prescribed antibiotics.89 • "The American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury at nearly 800,000 in the US. By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251."

The Sinatra Solution Metabolic Cardiology Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Complications from "standard-of-care" interventions, medical errors, and overuse of antibiotics are increasing at an alarming rate. When we consider that the fourth leading cause of death in the United States is properly prescribed medications in a hospital setting, something's got to give! Even in 2005, coronary artery bypass surgeries (CABS) are still performed on the basis of clogged arteries alone with no regard to quality of life issues. This is not smart medicine.

What If Medicine Disappeared? Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts

Taken together, the four medicine-induced problems—adverse reactions to drugs, nosocomial deaths, medical errors, and unnecessary surgery—account conservatively for about a quarter million deaths per year (about one per minute in the United States), about 11% of all deaths. Unbelievably, these medicine-induced problems would be the third leading cause of death, behind cancer but ahead of strokes—though neither alone or together are any of these medicine-induced deaths ever shown in official statistics.

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer Shannon Brownlee See book keywords and concepts

They will suffer fewer medical errors, and they will be subjected to less unnecessary, invasive, and potentially dangerous care. Everybody will begin to save money Medicare will see the savings first, but as hospitals are pushed toward efficiency, those savings will spill over to private insurance. That means employers and states will pay less for health care. Primary care physicians will find their services once again in demand. Disease-management companies, which help hospitals figure out the best practices to care for their chronically ill patients will have plenty of business.

The institute estimated that medical errors kill between forty-four thousand and ninety-eight thousand Americans each year. Some 4 percent of the thirty-three million people who are hospitalized annually, about 1.3 million patients, suffer from a complication—or in medical argot, an "adverse event"—that leads to a longer stay in the hospital, disability, or death. One in seven adverse events tallied in the study involved an infection acquired in the hospital. More than half of the adverse events were due to mistakes the reviewers deemed were preventable.

When doctors give unnecessary treatment, patients are exposed to all the risks—but not the benefits—of medicine, risks that include hospital-borne infections, the complications and side effects that can come with any treatment, and medical errors like the ones that led to Josie King's death. Hospitals, says Fisher, "can be dangerous places." Bad doctors Just how dangerous? Consider some typical medical disasters. A thirty-seven-year-old man was admitted to Allegheny General Hospital, in Pittsburgh, with pancreatitis, an inflammation of his pancreas.

Unnecessary care also makes medical errors more likely, because the higher the volume of care you receive, the greater the odds are that somebody, somewhere, will make a mistake. In its 1999 report To Err Is Human, the Institute of Medicine estimated that as many as ninety-eight thousand Americans are killed each year by medical error. Another ninety thousand to four hundred thousand patients are harmed or killed by the incorrect use of a drug—they received the wrong drug, or the wrong dose of the right drug, or two drugs that interacted in the wrong way.

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

In Iowa, doctors and hospitals do not have to report deaths caused by medical errors, unless the doctor who was at fault is considered by his peers to be seriously incompetent. In other words, if other physicians and the hospital's chief believe the death was caused by an honest mistake, it can remain a secret. Even if the medical error is reported to Iowa regulators, the information is kept from the public. Only if the state eventually takes action against the doctor does the public learn the briefest of details about the death. By then, many years have likely passed since the patient died.

What If Medicine Disappeared? Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts

Yet research in 2002 corroborated the estimate, claiming that "fully 34% of all doctors said that either they or members of their family had experienced serious medical errors... with serious health consequences."6 Nor is our list complete. To our consternation we learned about surgeries that should never have been performed. In 1974, the U.S. House of Representatives estimated that there were 2.4 million unnecessary operations—a large proportion of them gynecological, resulting in 16,000 deaths and an expenditure of $3.9 billion.7 It took us a moment to make the calculation.

Death by Medicine Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD. See book keywords and concepts

General Accounting Office responsible for health financing and public health issues, testifying before a House subcommittee about medical errors, said that, "The full magnitude of their threat to the American public is unknown." She added, "Gathering valid and useful information about adverse events is extremely difficult." She acknowledged that the fear of being blamed, and the potential for legal liability, played key roles in the under-reporting of errors. The Psychiatric Times noted that the American Medical Association is strongly opposed to mandatory reporting of medical errors.

If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It! The No-nonsense Guide to an Eating-for-Health Lifestyle Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C. See book keywords and concepts

This article identifies medical errors as the 3rd leading cause of death in America (heart disease being first and cancer second). It states that over 250,000 Americans die per year as a result of iatrogenic (physician induced) causes. The death toll broken down is as follows: 12,000 - die from unnecessary surgeries. 7,000 - die from medication errors in hospitals. 20,000 - die from other errors in hospitals. 80,000 - die from infections they get in the hospital. 106,000 - die from adverse effects of medications.

Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About Kevin Trudeau See book keywords and concepts

Things like unnecessary surgery, medical errors, negative effects of drugs, etc., cause almost as many deaths as heart disease and cancer. Over 250,000 people in America alone die each year from physicians' activity or therapy. These account only for the deaths; they do not include people who are permanently maimed, injured, or develop serious other medical conditions due to drugs and surgical procedures.

Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele See book keywords and concepts

To reduce medical errors dramatically, the council could oversee creation and operation of a single information technology system that links all health care players—hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies, and nursing homes. Deaths caused by an error in one hospital or nursing home could be identified and corrective steps initiated before the error recurs in other facilities. Patient records would be stored electronically. Prescriptions would be computer-generated. It would help ensure correct dosages and preclude the dispensing of drugs with harmful interactions.

Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About Kevin Trudeau See book keywords and concepts

Interns long hours cause medical errors resulting in deaths." 'Blood transfusions at birth almost always unneeded." 'Merck tried to bury Vioxx concerns for years." 'Crestor harms kidneys." 'Pain drugs damage heart." 'Antibiotics raise heart death risk." 'Glaxo ordered to release negative data on its drugs." 'Ads for controversial drugs must be changed." 'Drug complaints reach record high." 'Scientists see no need for pain drugs." 'Whistleblower warns of more drug risks." Attention deficit drugs have negative long-term effects." Most people do not need flu vaccines.

Death by Medicine Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD. See book keywords and concepts

If we put this number in place of Lazorou's 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 98,000 medical errors (which may have a drug error overlap with Lazorou's study), we could add another 216,000 deaths making a total of 999,936 deaths annually. Condition Deaths Cost Author ADR/med error 420,000 $200 billion Leape 199714 TOTAL 999,936 ANNUAL UNNECESSARY MEDICAL EVENTS STATISTICS Unnecessary Events People Affected Iatrogenic Events Hospitalization 8.9 million4 1.78 million16 Procedures 7.5 million3 1.3 million40 TOTAL 16.4 million 3.

This implies that if medical errors were completely and accurately reported, we would have a much higher annual iatrogenic death rate than 783,936. Dr. Leape, in 1994, said his figure of 180,000 medical mistakes annually was equivalent to three jumbo-jet crashes every two days.16 Our report shows that 6 jumbo jets are falling out of the sky each and every day. Correcting a Compromised System What we must deduce from this report is that medicine is in need of complete and total reform: from the curriculum in medical schools to protecting patients from excessive medical intervention.

There are no Grand Rounds on medical errors, no sharing of failures among doctors and no one to support them emotionally when their error harms a patient. Leape hoped his paper would encourage medicine "to fundamentally change the way they think about errors and why they occur". It's been almost a decade since this groundbreaking work, but the mistakes continue to soar. One year later, in 1995, a report in JAMA said that, "Over a million patients are injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries.

Death By Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation Ray Strand, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

I figure if adverse drug reactions to properly prescribed medications are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States (and when combined with medical errors, the third leading cause of death), physicians should be just as avid about trying to protect patients from death or injury from a drug as from cancer or heart disease. Especially when you realize that over half of these serious adverse drug reactions and subsequent deaths can and should be avoided. The fact remains: the medical community isn't passionate about your protection against adverse drug reactions.

Death by Medicine Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD. See book keywords and concepts

Leape at this press conference also updated his 1994 statistics saying that medical errors in inpatient hospital settings nationwide, as of 1997, could be as high as three million and could cost as much as $200 billion. Leape used a 14% fatality rate to determine a medical error death rate of 180,000 in 1994.16 In 1997, using Leape's base number of three million errors, the annual deaths could be as much as 420,000 for inpatients alone. This does not include nursing home deaths, or people in the outpatient community dying of drug side effects or as the result of medical procedures.

The Psychiatric Times noted that the American Medical Association is strongly opposed to mandatory reporting of medical errors.26 If doctors aren't reporting, what about nurses? In a survey of nurses, they also did not report medical mistakes for fear of retaliation.27 Standard medical pharmacology texts admit that relatively few doctors ever report adverse drug reactions to the FDA.28 The reasons range from not knowing such a reporting system exists to fear of being sued because they prescribed a drug that caused harm.

Health Care Meltdown: Confronting The Myths and Fixing Our Failing System Bob LeBow, M.D., M.P.H. See book keywords and concepts

But we have major problems with medical errors, poor access to care, the failure to practice scientific-based medicine, and the lack of a preventive approach to health care. However, it's primarily the financing system, and every aspect that relates to that system, that's failing. And the financing of health care drives the delivery system. In any given year, the great majority of Americans experience only minimal interface with our system. For example, the healthiest 20 percent of Americans spend only about $14 a year on health care.

Prescription For Disaster: Dangers In Your Medicine Cabinet Thomas J. Moore See book keywords and concepts

Although I know doctors who are very direct and very frank about medical errors, a more likely outcome is that medication adjustments will be made with a silken smooth explanation intended to provoke neithei patient fears nor unwanted patient curiosity. In sizing up your doctor's response, it is important not to confuse a friendly bedside manner with a genuine response to your concerns. Because of their unique role, job pressures, and intense training, doctors are in some ways quite similar. They perform one of those special jobs—like police officers—that seem to mold the person.

Health Care Meltdown: Confronting The Myths and Fixing Our Failing System Bob LeBow, M.D., M.P.H. See book keywords and concepts

I doubt that we have more malpractice than other countries, but we do have a large amount of medical errors (that could be potential malpractice) that go unrecognized or unchallenged. Thousands of medical mistakes—wrong decisions—never come to light because people don't know any better or are not sufficiently empowered to challenge them in court. In these situations, the victims are usually obliged to pay for the mistakes of their aberrant caregivers. Call it fairness, American style.

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System J.D. Kleinke See book keywords and concepts

Consider the recent well-publicized medical errors report published by the Institute of Medicine, which claimed to have identified ninety-eight thousand preventable annual deaths in U.S. hospitals (Kohn, Corrigan, and Donaldson, 2000).

Health Care Meltdown: Confronting The Myths and Fixing Our Failing System Bob LeBow, M.D., M.P.H. See book keywords and concepts

A decrease in the quality of care and an increase in medical errors as cost saving became the main priority. • A failure to deal with some of the more pressing—but less profitable—aspects of health care, such as mental health and public health. The failure to fund public health adequately became particularly evident when our nation was recently faced with the anthrax scare. This aspect of the failure of "the market" is extensively discussed in a book by Laurie Garrett.11 • An expansion of for-profit HMOs, a phenomenon that has come to be almost as reviled as the tobacco industry in America.

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System J.D. Kleinke See book keywords and concepts

A year after that, the conventional wisdom had it that the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) widely discussed report on ninety-eight thousand annual deaths resulting from medical errors would compel health care organizations to invest in IT that identifies and routs out such errors. When Wall Street stock promoters are short on rallying events like managed care or the IOM report, they go back to arguing the same pristine piece of logic: because health care organizations have spent proportionately little of their operating budgets on IT, they simply must start spending more.

Health Care Meltdown: Confronting The Myths and Fixing Our Failing System Bob LeBow, M.D., M.P.H. See book keywords and concepts

Ambulances circle around waiting for an open spot at an emergency room. medical errors happen much too frequently. Costs are soaring. Patient expectations are soaring too, as new technologies and drugs become available. Waste abounds as money that could be used for patient care is instead diverted to pay for higher administrative costs that are a result of the increasing (and unnecessary) complexity and "gaming" of our system. Our federal programs, Medicare and Medicaid, are endangered. There is no planning, no vision for the future, as our nonsystem seems to be imploding.

How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive: A Guide to Patient Power Sheldon P. Blau, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.R. and Elaine Fantle Shimberg See book keywords and concepts

Why is so little information reported when these and other medical errors occur? Mainly because the reporting is based primarily on an honor system. Hospitals are expected to report their own mistakes and accidents to their state authorities.They then are requested to investigate how the unfortunate event(s) happened, determine who was responsible, and declare how they will prevent similar mistakes from taking place in the future.

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