Study: Medical mistakes 3rd-leading cause of death in U.S.

http://www.kob.com/health-news/study-medical-mistakes-3rd-leading-cause-of-death-in-us/4207669/

A recent study suggests that medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in this country.

That means – surgical mistakes, prescription medicine mistakes, misdiagnosis and more.

And medical error is not an “official” cause of death on death certificates so it can be hard tally the total. 

But some doctors and hospitals are working to change that — and are putting patient safety, front and center. 

You may remember the headlines: Pennsylvania Congressmen John Murtha went into Walter Reed Medical Center for gall bladder surgery. 

He died a month later at Virginia hospital reportedly due to complications from a mistake during the operation. 

“If medical-care-gone-wrong were a disease, it would rank as the third-leading cause of death in the United States,” said surgeon Dr. Marty Makary.

Dr. Makary, at Johns Hopkins, spearheaded a recent study which analyzed death rate data from the past eight years.

The results, published in the journal BMI, put death from medical errors just behind heart disease and cancer. 

“Unnecessary treatments, fragmented care, people falling through the cracks, overdoses, complications which are totally preventable, these are the collective causes that comprise the problem of people dying when they should not, people dying under our care,” Dr. Makary said.

He underscores that most of the mistakes are not due to inherently bad doctors.

“We shouldn’t look to doctors to blame the problem on individuals, we are human, but we can talk about how can we design the system to capture mistakes, provide safety nets,” Makary said.

Early on a Monday morning, in downtown Washington dozens of new medical interns are attending a safety seminar given by Medstar Health. 

“Our job is to give you these tools to train so that you can provide the safest, highest quality care possible,” said Dr. David Mayer, with Medstar Health. “We need to break down those barriers we need to do huddles with everyone involved with a person’s care so anyone can chime in with a concern.”

He cites miscommunication and diagnostic error as significant causes of medical mistakes.

And he believes educating and supporting young doctors is critical. 

“We have to make sure that it’s safe for them to go up the chain of command, to call a senior resident, to call and attending, when they’re uncertain, and they’re trying to make a critical thought process in a patient’s care,” Mayer said.

But Dr. Makary hopes more funds will be directed towards combating medical error for the long term. 

“We spend a lot of time and money on heart disease and a lot of time and money on cancer but we have yet to recognize that our complex medical system can harm people just as any diagnosis or medical treatment can go wrong,” she said.

Filed under: General Problems