May 19th, 2005

"Medical errors responsible for 98,000 deaths annually"

In recent years, the focus on patient safety has been one of the top priorities in hospitals, but a new study indicates significant change is hard to come by. As many as 98,000 Americans die every year because of medical errors, according to the study in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

After a landmark report by the Institute of Medicine was released in 2000 revealing medical mistakes was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans every year, hospitals across the nation began making changes to increase patient safety. The efforts have included the addition of computerized prescribing, adding a pharmacist to medical teams and team training in the delivery of babies, but there has been little impact on the rate of fatalities suffered since 2000 because of medical errors.

Researchers believe the complexity of health care systems, a lack of leadership and the reluctance of malpractice shy doctors to admit errors is to blame for the lack of progress. Certain kinds of medical error related illnesses and deaths have been reduced as much as 93 percent because of increased focus on patient safety, but more must be done to bring the overall nationwide number of deaths linked to medical errors down.

Study co-author Lucian Leape of Harvard’s School of Public Health believes more pressure needs to be put on hospitals. One of the study’s findings showed that five to eight percent of intensive care patients on ventilators develop pneumonia, which a simple protocol of bed elevation, drugs and periodic breathing breaks could reduce to nearly zero, yet hospitals have failed to implement the practice. Researchers have suggested creating a bonus system to reward hospitals for things like eliminating infections because as the system currently stands, there is no economic incentive for hospitals to reduce errors when they stand to make more money when treating resulting problems.

Hospitals have a standard of care and duty to their patients, yet medical errors continue to take tens of thousands of lives every year. If you believe the death of a loved one was suffered because of a preventable medical error, please contact us for more information on medical malpractice.