Medical errors now third leading cause of death in US

Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. Their figure, published May 3 in The BMJ, surpasses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) third leading cause of death — respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.
In their study, the researchers examined four separate studies that analyzed medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008, including one by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Then, using hospital admission rates from 2013, they extrapolated that based on a total of 35,416,020 hospitalizations, 251,454 deaths stemmed from a medical error, which the researchers say now translates to 9.5 percent of all deaths each year in the U.S.
According to the CDC, in 2013, 611,105 people died of heart disease, 584,881 died of cancer and 149,205 died of chronic respiratory disease — the top three causes of death in the U.S. The newly calculated figure for medical errors puts this cause of death behind cancer but ahead of respiratory disease.

http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/652.html

 

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250,000 deaths from medical error per year.
33,000 deaths from road accidents per year
13,000 deaths from guns per year

3,000 people die fifteen years ago and we get a War on Terror.

I sense a logical disconnect.

 

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(wild guess du jour)
We do not have enough doctors in the U.S.A.
?

 

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What does that mean ? stay away from doctors ?

 

It means evaluate the importance of events and data in an objective manner, avoiding prejudices, biases and stereotypes in your thinking, thereby arriving at conclusions and plans of actions that will deliver the most favourable results.

 

I cannot be predigest, my son will be a doctor God willing by 2017, my wife is a nurse , so I here sometime some comments .

 

I wonder if the causality could be divided like surgery practiced and family practices .

 

As I've noted here before, I've been epileptic since about age four--but I wasn't diagnosed correctly until the age of 25! Why? you might ask: I was poor and had little to no access to decent healthcare. In retrospect, "no access" would have been preferable, as the docs I did get to see--at public health clinics--gave me a whole five minute appointment. Usually, more like two or three minutes. I was diagnosed and treated for "schizophrenia," among other things. As a consequence of some of these drugs, my epilepsy was worsened considerably, and in some instances, irreparably. Now I'm considered "refractory," or a hopeless case.

How did I get a correct diagnosis? Somehow, I managed to go to grad school in Toronto (Canada, for U.S. idiots unfamiliar) (by the way, my undergraduate education was paid fully by scholarships which covered tuition, fees, and way beyond any living expenses I could possibly conceive--as noted, I was/am poor), went to a psych, got a proper three hour appointment, and was immediately sent to a team of neurologists.

Fuck America. I treat myself now (with what I will not state presently), and haven't been to a doctor in nearly twenty years--oh, except for the time in Turkey in which I seized in a park and awoke in a hospital 36 hours later. They treated me just fine, and didn't bill me. In fact, I've long maintained that I will never go to a doctor in this shithole of a country again without a gun. I don't have a gun, so I'll probably never see a doctor again (at least in the U.S.)

Then there's my mother's older sister: she went in for a routine lower g.i. some years back, became severely ill shortly thereafter, and then had a multi-organ (five? six? seven? can't recall) transplant, and then she died. The apparatus for the g.i. apparently were not properly sterilized.

So I repeat: Fuck America, and fuck the rich. "Purging" ala the crappy film franchise (actually, the second one wasn't bad) is my dream.

 

Why are you so bitter on America ? because you are poor, because bad diagnosis , Yet you had all the scholarship and you had all you expenses paid . I don't know what you do for living . You have managed to travel. Was your family on a welfare system ?
From were I come we don't have a welfare system, we struggle without doctors , we learn how to live , our country is our country, the country does owe us anything , it is for us to make a living , succeed or fail .
Your anger , you have a lot of loose energy , why don't you channel your energy in doing some good for the who have less then you, and make a more pleasant world for them.

 

My, how presumptuous of you. How do you know that I do not "channel" my anger into more creative endeavors? The reason I've gotten to travel so much is that I'm a musician--that's where I channel my anger, for one.

Moreover, I live in one of the most affluent nations on the planet; yet a majority of the populace have not had access to decent medical care for much of their lives, cannot afford a "500 dollar emergency" (look it up, I'm not bothering with providing a link for a presumptuous ass like yourself), and do not even have access to decent food (again, no link: just look up "food deserts"). Still, we seem to have a fair number of millionaires and billionaires with multiple homes and more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.

You're not angry? Good for you. Let the rich shit all over you and be proud.

 

Actually, here's link for ya:

Anger Is an Energy: My Life Uncensored, by John Lydon

Though you may not care much for Lydon's prose, as he has little patience for those who spew biblical nonsense wholly irrelevant to the topic at hand ( http://www.sciforums.com/threads/co...hs-great-oxidation-event.156160/#post-3376538 ).

And no, we did not get welfare: my single mother worked full-time for just slightly above minimum wage. She has lupus, and was advised by her doctors to pursue disability; however, disability (welfare) would have been considerably less than what little she was already making, and so she could not afford to do such. Instead, she just worked herself nearly to death.

 

As for food : many churches have food pantry. Same food that comes from big food markets are donated to churches to be distributed among need, there are also food stamps for needy . My sisters obtain food from time to time from the church. As for medical clinics : My son is medical school : they attend patients for free at the university hospitals .
As for your mother> How much do you contribute to her well been, remember that is the obligation of the children to help parents when they are in need

 

Fuck off, idiot.

And seriously, do you have the capacity to comprehend anything that you read? Or do you only retain that which you read only immediately prior? Most of your remarks have already been countered and addressed within this thread--do you seriously not understand that?

 

I do not want to appear to be defending the bizarre dysfunctionality central to the US health care system, but in point of fact the better we get at treating disease and trauma and so forth the larger the share of deaths due to medical error will become.

Our treatment capabilities are almost certainly nowhere near good enough to make medical error the cause of a legitimate third of all deaths, but it's a statistical factor to consider.

If we could cure everything by mistake-free medical care, all deaths would be medical error.

 

Excellent point. I created consternation in my company when I suggested we should aim for a situation where all our equipment failures were a consequence of poor design or manufacture, since this would mean we had eliminated inappropriate selection or application of said equipment - currently the main causes of failure.

 

You are the linguist. Isn't sensible government an oxymoron?

 

Is you British system any better ? could you explain a little better what you mean by but in point of fact the better we get at treating disease and trauma and so forth the larger the share of deaths due to medical error will become. "

I am not sure how valid are the number by medical death . There are cases were the doctors have no power over death, are the death by accident , poisoning , suicide car accidents natural death , and other incluided in medical death since everyone is taken to the hospital , then pronounced death due to medical practice ? most death are pronounced death are by the hands of a medical doctor.