Guess what is killing US nationals...

[Mike]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- As many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors, a company said Tuesday in an estimate that doubles previous figures.

Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.

"The HealthGrades study shows that the IOM report may have underestimated the number of deaths due to medical errors, and, moreover, that there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years," said Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at the company.

The company, which rates hospitals based on a variety of criteria and provides information to insurers and health plans, said its researchers looked at three years of Medicare data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

"This Medicare population represented approximately 45 percent of all hospital admissions (excluding obstetric patients) in the U.S. from 2000 to 2002," the company said in a statement.

HealthGrades included as mistakes failure to rescue dying patients and the death of low-risk patients from infections -- neither of which the Institute of Medicine report included.

It said it found about 1.14 million "patient-safety incidents" occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations.

"Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 263,864, or 81 percent, of these deaths were directly attributable to the incidents," it added.

"One in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2002 and experienced a patient-safety incident died."

The U.S. government said it is trying to spearhead a move to get hospitals and clinics to use electronic databases and prescribing methods. The Institute of Medicine report said many deaths were due to medication prescribing errors or to errors in delivering medications.

"If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual list of leading causes of death included medical errors, it would show up as number six, ahead of diabetes, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and renal disease," Collier said.

[Dan]

Hey Mike this info is truely disturbing.

Its time government should look into the matter seriously.

[RebelliousOne]

Mike:

More than 250,000 persons a year die in hospitals due to negligent medical care; that is more than all the people who die on our freeways annually! Yet the medical profession is one of the least regulated "industires" in the US. Worse, it is one of the most protected professions as a result of the American Medical Association (AMA), which goes out of its way to shield doctors who are not merely incompetent, but criminally lible for their unprofessional conduct.

Contrary to Dan's belief, I do not believe that the government should involve itself in regulating the medical profession; but I do believe that the justice system should be liberalized to hold incapable doctors responsible for their unacceptable practices. Government only adds to the confusion; a righteous law suit can cull away the derelict, unqualified and bungling M.D.s who hide behind the skirts of the AMA.

My gutfeel on this issue is that private enterprise and personal responsibility can cure the ills of the medical profession.

RO