USA
Today recently
reported on a study that
found that approximately 250,000 people die each year due to medical errors,
making this the nation’s third leading cause of death behind heart disease and
cancer (see chart below). The study, by
surgeon and Johns Hopkins professor Martin Makary, is the second to reach this
conclusion. (John James, a NASA
toxicologist, reached the same conclusion in his
2013 study.)
Determining
the number of deaths due to medical errors isn’t easy. Part of the problem lies
in how deaths are classified. Death certificates in more than 100 countries,
including the United States, use the International Classification of Disease
(ICD) code to classify mortality data. The
code does not allow medical errors to be recorded on death certificates, making
such deaths difficult to track.
Makary
believes that doctors may not acknowledge mistakes because they fear being
sued for malpractice. Consequently, “he
says medical and legal protections are needed, as with hospital quality
information, so causes of death are accurately reported,” according to the
article.
