Doctor Visits More Traumatic Than Illness
Doctor Visits More Traumatic than Illness
Development by Example
Preventable medical errors kill or seriously injure hundreds of thousands
of Americans every year. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 1999 study has
estimated that as many as 98,000 people die every year from preventable
medical errors. If this figure were included in the Center for Disease Control’s
(CDC) Leading Causes of Death in the United States, it would be the sixth leading
cause of death in the United States. Some of the major killers are: nosocomial
infections, medication errors and adverse drug reactions.
Another study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that
sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital acquired infections killed 48,000
patients in 2006 alone. Both of these infections are mostly preventable
through better infection control. This study also found that 20 percent of people
who developed sepsis while admitted in a hospital died and 11 percent of
patients who developed hospital acquired pneumonia also died. The resistance of
these types of infections to common antibiotics also contributed to the number of
deaths associated with the infections.
Medication errors are another major killer in the American healthcare
system. In June of 2010, the Journal of General Internal Medicine released a
report that analyzed death certificates from 1976 to 2006. The study found that
of 62 million death certificates, almost 250,000 were coded as having occurred in
a medical setting and due to medication errors. This study also found that these
fatal medication errors spiked yearly in July, particularly in teaching hospitals.
The causes of the deaths related to medication errors were narrowed down to:
accidental drug overdose, prescribing the wrong drug, administering the wrong
drug, or accidents involving medications during surgery or other medical
Development by Example
Preventable medical errors kill or seriously injure hundreds of thousands
of Americans every year. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 1999 study has
estimated that as many as 98,000 people die every year from preventable
medical errors. If this figure were included in the Center for Disease Control’s
(CDC) Leading Causes of Death in the United States, it would be the sixth leading
cause of death in the United States. Some of the major killers are: nosocomial
infections, medication errors and adverse drug reactions.
Another study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that
sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital acquired infections killed 48,000
patients in 2006 alone. Both of these infections are mostly preventable
through better infection control. This study also found that 20 percent of people
who developed sepsis while admitted in a hospital died and 11 percent of
patients who developed hospital acquired pneumonia also died. The resistance of
these types of infections to common antibiotics also contributed to the number of
deaths associated with the infections.
Medication errors are another major killer in the American healthcare
system. In June of 2010, the Journal of General Internal Medicine released a
report that analyzed death certificates from 1976 to 2006. The study found that
of 62 million death certificates, almost 250,000 were coded as having occurred in
a medical setting and due to medication errors. This study also found that these
fatal medication errors spiked yearly in July, particularly in teaching hospitals.
The causes of the deaths related to medication errors were narrowed down to:
accidental drug overdose, prescribing the wrong drug, administering the wrong
drug, or accidents involving medications during surgery or other medical