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How much danger are patients in today?
We're doing more procedures, prescribing more medications and making more
diagnoses now than ever before, so there are more opportunities for mistakes to
happen. My research shows that medical care gone wrong accounts for approxi-
mately 250,000 patient deaths each year, making it the
third leading cause of mortality in the United States.
You don't like to label
surgical mistakes as "errors." Why?
The phrase "medical errors" creates a reaction that's
emotional and territorial. It infers that an indi-
vidual is at fault. "Medical care gone wrong"
emphasizes the role systems play in mis-
takes occurring and is more inclusive.
Let's not play the blame game. Let's ana-
lyze the system that led to the mistake.
Are healthcare leaders
aware of how often
medical care goes wrong?
No, because we use billing codes to tally
causes of death. Medical care gone wrong
should be measured with data collection
infrastructure as strong as the one used
to generate national cancer statistics. In
the meantime, we rely on estimates from
t's Time for Honest Discussions
About Medical Care Gone Wrong
I
Marty Makary, MD, MPH
Patient safety advocate and healthcare transparency proponent