Medical error is third biggest cause of death in the US, experts say by Amanda Holpuch.
From the post:
Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US, accounting for 250,000 deaths every year, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.
There is no US system for coding these deaths, but Martin Makary and Michael Daniel, researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s school of medicine, used studies from 1999 onward to find that medical errors account for more than 9.5% of all fatalities in the US.
Only heart disease and cancer are more deadly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The analysis, which was published in the British Medical Journal, said that the science behind medical errors would improve if data was shared internationally and nationally “in the same way as clinicians share research and innovation about coronary artery disease, melanoma, and influenza”.
But death by medical error is not captured by government reports because the US system for assigning a code to cause of death, the international classification of disease (ICD), does not have a label for medical error.
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In contrast to topic maps, where you can talk about any subject you want, the international classification of disease (ICD), does not have a label for medical error.
Impact? Not having a label conceals approximately 250,000 deaths per year in the United States.
What if Fear of Terror press releases were broadcast but along with “deaths due to medical error to date this year” as contextual information?
Medical errors result in approximately 685 deaths per day.
If you heard the report of the shootings in San Bernardino, December 2, 2015 and that 14 people were killed and the report pointed out that to date, approximately 230,160 had died due to medical errors, which one would you judge to be the more serious problem?
Lacking a label for medical error as cause of death, prevents public discussion of the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Contrast that with the public discussion over the largely non-existent problem of terrorism in the United States.