We're Number 3?

[WilcoWorld]

According to the BMJ, medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US.

No wonder we don't have time to eat, pee or chart on shift. Apparently we're too busy killing people.

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[WeeBay]

"Medical error has been defined as an unintended act (either of omission or commission) or one that does not achieve its intended outcome......"

So essentially any patient who dies while under a physicians care is medical error then? I mean outside of Hospice/palliative care, the intended outcome of every treatment doesn't include death

 

[BAM!]

According to the BMJ, medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US.

No wonder we don't have time to eat, pee or chart on shift. Apparently we're too busy killing people.

Well... you can't extrapolate 9-14 deaths in a small hospital system to 130-400K deaths/year nationally and realistically believe the numbers.

This paper is really more of a quick excel scratch document than anything else.

 

[Birdstrike]

The nice thing about this, is that we're good for business.

 

[gro2001]

"Medical error has been defined as an unintended act (either of omission or commission) or one that does not achieve its intended outcome......"

So essentially any patient who dies while under a physicians care is medical error then? I mean outside of Hospice/palliative care, the intended outcome of every treatment doesn't include death

You are right, this research definition of medical error does not overlap very well with what we would typically consider an error when talking about it either among medical professionals or among laymen. It's not just a death that would be considered an error, but the following scenarios:

-Patient comes in with symptoms of UTI. You correctly diagnose the problem and prescribe the appropriate antibiotic (per relevant guidelines and local sensitivities). The patient reports that he has no known drug allergies. The antibiotic is administered and the patient develops an allergic reaction. You appropriately treat the allergic reaction, switch the antibiotic to another one and discharge the patient who suffers no other complications.

-You decide to perform procedural sedation for hip dislocation reduction. You are managing the sedation while a colleague is performing the reduction. You observe that the patient's O2 saturation dropped to 92%. You administer oxygen and the rest of the procedure goes as expected with no further complications.

-A patient arrives in your ER in Vfib arrest with chest compressions by EMS. You attempt resuscitation including defibrillation, but with no ROSC. You pronounce the patient.

No clinician did anything wrong in any of the above scenarios and nothing bad (apart from the last patient) happened. Yet these would all be classified as errors because your actions "did not achieve the intended outcome".

 

[sum dude]

These are all erroneous--the number one cause of death is life

Also, this great link, b/c science is hard (harder if you are a member of the media)

 

[Tenk]

The three top killers of this nation are (in no particular order):

1. Diet.

2. Laziness.

3. Smoking.

Get rid of all three and a lot of us would be out of jobs.