More than 250,000 patients in the United States die and will die every year due to mistakes committed by the medical staff — a number that should mark "medical errors" as the third top cause of mortality in the country.
This is what experts from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine revealed in their new report published Wednesday, emphasizing how failings in the monitoring of vital statistics would keep the issue out of the public eye.
Led by surgeon Martin Makary, Johns Hopkins researchers found that at least 250,000 patients had died in 2013 not from illnesses or injuries but from medical errors that are preventable. They examined research on the incidence of medical errors that kill people, and extrapolated the data to the amount of care administered.
Calculating medical death rate over an eight-year period, the researchers estimate that the same number of deaths or more will occur should there be no intervention. The death toll would also be higher if out-patient care and nursing homes are included in the report.
The Johns Hopkins report's figure surpasses the number of deaths caused by respiratory disease — the third major cause of death as examined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - which results to 150,000 deaths per year.
Johns Hopkins researchers say the way the CDC collects data fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. The group then calls for updated guidelines for classifying deaths on death certificates.
Makary says patients do not just die from heart plaque or bacteria, they die from fragmented healthcare, communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors, and over-dosing.
What's more, researchers do not know the precise number of patients who die from faulty prescriptions, botched surgeries, or a computer glitch because no one is keeping records.
Makary says the lack of national data shows the need for methodical measurement of the issue. He said the extent of the problem in the U.S. is probably similar in other countries.
Dr. Tejal Gandhi of the National Patient Safety Foundation says her group considers "patient harm" as the third top cause of death, but not everyone knows about it.
"If you ask them the top causes of death, most people wouldn't say 'preventable harm,'" says Gandhi.
Gandhi, who is the president of the foundation, says better tracking would improve public recognition and funding of the problem.
Meanwhile, the team's report is featured in the journal BMJ.
