Preventable harm contributes to between 210,000 and 440,000 deaths in American hospitals, a new literature review in the Journal of Patient Safety finds. It divides these lethal mistakes into errors of commission, omission, communication, context and diagnostic errors. The smaller estimate, gleaned with help from the Global Trigger Tool, doesn’t include errors where the patient should have been treated but wasn’t.
If this is true, the Scientific American reports this would make medical error the third leading cause of death in America, right behind heart disease and cancer.
The man behind the study, John T. James, is a NASA toxicologist at the Houston space center who also runs Patient Safety America. From the SA article:
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Asked about the higher estimates, a spokesman for the American Hospital Association said the group has more confidence in the [Institute of Medicine]’s estimate of 98,000 deaths.* ProPublica asked three prominent patient safety researchers to review James’ study, however, and all said his methods and findings were credible.
Highlights from the review:
- “Increased production demands in cost-driven institutions may increase the risk of preventable adverse events.”
- “Because of increased production demands, providers may be expected to give care in suboptimal working conditions, with decreased staff, and a shortage of physicians, which leads to fatigue and burnout. It should be no surprise that PAEs that harm patients are frighteningly common in this highly technical, rapidly changing, and poorly integrated industry.”
*This number comes from the 1999 “To Err Is Human” report.
