Medical Mistakes Blamed In 200K Deaths A Year

[babylonsister]

Medical Mistakes Blamed In 200K Deaths A Year
Probe Points to Preventable Medical Errors, Hospital Infections; Says Report Meant to Reverse Tide


An investigation by the Hearst Corporation says an estimated 200 thousand Americans will die this year from preventable medical errors and hospital infections.

Hearst dubbed its report, "Dead by Mistake."

The report also says 20 states have no medical error reporting system in place, five have voluntary ones, and five more are developing reporting systems.

What's more, says the report, in the 20 states that make medical error reporting mandatory, hospitals report only a tiny percentage of their mistakes, standards vary wildly, and enforcement is often nonexistent.

Hearst also blames special interests for blocking progress in this area, noting that, "Ten years ago, the highly-publicized federal report, 'To Err Is Human,' highlighted the alarming death toll from preventable medical injuries and called on the medical community to cut it in half in five years. Its authors and patient safety advocates believed that its release would spur a revolution in patient safety.

"But Hearst's 'Dead By Mistake' reveals that the federal government and most states have made little or no progress in improving patient safety through accountability mechanisms or other measures. According to the Hearst investigation, special interests worked to ensure that the key recommendations in the report -- most notably a mandatory national reporting system for medical errors -- were never implemented."

more...

http://cbs2.com/health/hospital.deaths.medical.2.1121261.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Yep - the medical community's version of the police's "blue wall"....

They protect their own bad doctors, refusing to permit significant sanctions against them. So the bad ones continue making errors and killing people.

[nolabels]

2. In favor of profits over cures the Medical establishment is still rather primitive compared to .....

rest of bio-technological world. It seems that general practitioner spends as much effort trying figure out what pharma to prescribe as they do with the diagnosis.

I have used search engines two or three times in the last couple years to double check a weak diagnosis and found out better :shrug:

[TexasObserver]

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