"If the medical system were a bank, you wouldn't deposit your money here, because there would be an error every one in two to one in three times you made a transaction." 
- Dr. Stephen Persell
Northwestern University's
Feinberg School of Medicine

Study after has shown that medical errors remain a rampant epidemic in the United States. 

A groundbreaking 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine, "To Err Is Human: Building a 

Safer Health System," concluded that at least 44,000 and as many as 98,000 patients die, and 1 million more are injured, every year in U.S. hospitals due to preventable medical errors. A newer study by HealthGrades released in July 2004, "Patient Safety in American Hospitals," estimated the number of deaths at 195,000 - twice as high as the IOM estimate. 

The HealthGrades estimate is the equivalent of THREE jumbo jets crashing every

day. At 195,000 deaths annually, it would make preventable medical errors the third leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease and cancer.

Consider this: If the HealthGrades and IOM studies only looked at U.S. hospitals, how many more patients die or suffer injuries due to errors in nursing homes, outpatient clinics, doctors' offices and other clinical settings?

In addition the human toll, the IOM study said medical errors carry a staggering financial cost - $29 billion annually. (Read the IOM Study) 

Three years after the IOM study was released, in December 2002, The Washington Post published an in-depth investigation, which found that no significant progress had been made toward reducing medical errors.
(Read It)

"As many as 6 million patients have died in 30 years.
That makes the healthcare industry the largest 
criminal organization in the country."
- Dr. Gil N. Mileikowsky 

A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October 2003, concluded that more than 32,500 patients die as a result of preventable medical errors in U.S. hospitals. (The HHS number was lower than the IOM study because it only examined deaths resulting from 18 specific types of medical injuries.) Read It

Don Berwick, a former physician and healthcare executive who runs the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston and is considered the third most influential authority on health care in the U.S., believes the American health care system is so deeply flawed, nothing short of a revolution is needed to fix it. The Boston Globe magazine recently published an in-depth profile on Berwick and his work. (Read It)

A recent article in the Annals of Internal Medicine said physicians seeking to lower their malpractice insurance rates would do better copying the systematic quality improvement efforts of anesthesiologists rather than seeking caps on damages. (See article) "All the discussion is about how do we minimize the impact of the suits, rather than how do we minimize the number of suits," said Dr. Stephen Schoenbaum, a co-author of the article

Here are some other eye-opening articles about medical errors:

• "When surgical instruments are left behind - in patients" - Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 1, 2004 - In about 80 cases a year in the Philadelphia area, surgical teams leave sponges, clamps and other instruments inside patients. (Read It)

• "Doctors cite instances of medical errors" - USAToday, Dec. 12, 2002 - More than one-third of practicing physicians and 40% of the public say they have experienced a medical error in the care that they or a family member received as patients, according to a survey. (Read It)

• "Preventable clots killing thousands in U.S." - Reuters News Service, Feb. 27, 2003 - Physicians are failing to prevent blood clot formation in nursing home and hospital patients, leading to 60,000 to 100,000 preventable deaths each year, public health officials say. (Read It)

• "Stressed surgeons leave tools in patients" - Associated Press, Jan 16, 2003 - Study by Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health in finds surgical teams accidentally leave clamps, sponges and other tools inside 1,500 U.S. patients a year. (Read It)

• "Lack of Reporting Thwarts Efforts to Halt Deadly Infections" - Washington Post, February 25, 2003 - Study finds 90,000 Americans die every year from hospital-acquired infections. (Read It)

• “Small Percentage of Doctors Responsible for Surge in Malpractice Suits, Rates” – Part 1 of a landmark 1986 Boston Globe series that paved the way for model patient safety reforms in Massachusetts. The lead article in the series names Dr. Frederick Huffnagle, who left Massachusetts to practice at Towanda Hospital in Towanda, Pa., where he was sued several times for malpractice. Despite a long history of negligence claims, he has moved from state to state and continues to practice. (Read It)

• "Anesthesia error left surgery patient alert" - CNN, May 18, 2004 - The pain in Carol Weihrer's eye was so severe she decided to have it surgically removed, believing it was the only way to get on with life. Instead, the surgery was the beginning of an unending nightmare. Her anesthesia failed, leaving her awake but paralyzed for a five-hour surgery in which doctors cut and gouged to remove her right eye. (Read It)

good. It protects the doctor who has a good economic income for the hospital and it targets the whistleblower." (Read article)

Meanwhile, good doctors continue to pay the freight for bad doctors because malpractice insurance is NOT experience-based.

The Post-Gazette, in an eye-opening four-day series published in October 2003, titled, "Cost of Courage," detailed how good doctors risk professional suicide by telling on their negligent colleagues or questioning dangerous hospital practices and system flaws. (Read It)

Meanwhile, there is nowhere for patients to go for information on doctors. Roughly 95 percent of malpractice suits are settled out of court and most of those cases are covered by secrecy agreements, which prohibit victims from talking about their experiences. In addition, peer review investigations are conducted in secret and the results are NOT open to the public. (See The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Discipline process operates in secret," Nov. 16, 2003)

And, while physicians and hospitals are either incapable of or unwilling to police their own ranks, the Pennsylvania Medical Board, which is supposed to weed out dangerous doctors, ranks 47th in doctor discipline. (See Public Citizen report) The state Legislature, as part of the MCARE Act of 2002, established the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, but the authority has made little progress in improving patient safety. (See "Slow start for Patient Safety Authority," Physician's News Digest, April 2003)

MORE ARTICLES ON PATIENT SAFETY
"Brain surgeon arrested after drunken altercation in hospital OR" - San Francisco Chronicle, March 10, 2006
"Sham Peer Review and the Courts" - Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 11 Number 1 Spring 2006
"Why Doctors So Often Get It Wrong" - NY Times, Feb. 22, 2006
"Report: Deadly errors made in intensive care" - Reuters, Feb. 15, 2006
"Error Rate Greatest in Hospital Radiology" - The Washington Post, Jan. 18, 2006
"Taxpayers foot bill for infections" - The Scranton Times-Tribune, Nov. 17, 2005
"Global goal: Reduce medical errors" - USA Today, Aug. 23, 2005
"Data show scourge of hospital infections in Pa." - Washington Post, July 13, 2005
"Once Seen as Risky, One Group of Doctors Changes Its Ways" - Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2005
"Deaths and Doctor's Past Transfix Australians" - NY Times, June 19, 2005
"Fixing Hospitals" - Comprehensive look at medical errors, Forbes, June 20, 2005
"Surgical Tools Washed With Hydraulic Fluid" - NY Times, June 14, 2005
"Walk Inside, Have Surgery. But Is It Safe?" - NY Times, June 14, 2005
"Coming Clean" - Hospital infections killing up to 103,000 hospital patients a year, NY Times, June 6, 2005
"Medical errors still claiming many lives" - USAToday, May 18, 2005
"Doctors' Haste Seen Hurting Patient" - Chicago Tribune, May 10, 2005
"Secret Settlements Hide Who's Behind Medical Mistakes" - May 2, 2005 
"Washington Post Series Reveals Troubling Facts" - April 10-12, 2005
"How Malpractice Suits Keep My Profession Honest" - Dr. Bernard Sussman, The Washington Post, April 24, 2005
"Medical Malpractice Reform Should Focus More on Patients Than on Caps, Say Nation's Medical Students" - News Release, April 20, 2005
"Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations for Healthcare" - Study finds dangerous lack of communication in hospitals, January 2005. Complete study
"Study: Hospital errors cause 195,000 deaths" - CNN, July 28, 2004
"To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System" - Landmark Institute of Medicine Study put annual death toll at 98,000
"No End to Errors: Three Years After a Landmark Report Found Pervasive Medical Mistakes in American Hospitals, Little has Been Done to Reduce Death and Injury" - Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2002
"End Crisis; Force Hospitals To Meet Industrial Standards" - The Sunday Times, Scranton, Pa., Sept. 26, 2004
"Reducing preventable errors is the first step toward fewer lawsuits" - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, June 28, 2004