Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality

Dear All, 

I just saw this commentary by Dr. Mazer and Dr. Nabhan that denounce the claim that medical errors result in the 200,000-440,000 deaths annually, and further claim that this overinflation of numbers does harm not only to the medical community, but to patients as well by building distrust in the system.  I am not trying to troll or stir up acrimony, but, I'd like to remain open minded and balanced in my interpretation of data.  As such, I am curious as to how the members of this community view and would respond to this commentary  


Thank you, 
Marianne

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Marianne Downes
Assistant Professor
West Virginia University
Morgantown WV
13042931633
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I understand what the authors of this article are essentially saying: the research methods employed to make the statistic that medical error is the 3rd leading cause of death were flawed. And they are correct, the research methods are flawed. Most of the research has been done on medical malpractice claims data and then extrapolated from such. The assumption is also always that very few medical errors result in a medical malpractice claim, which one could argue as true, but that would be difficult, too, to prove. The biggest problem in proving data is having accurate data, and currently accurate data on medical error doesn't exist.

We are still in a culture of penalizing providers for medical errors; they may not formally have repercussions, but providers tend to be treated differently from their peers when an error is admitted. There are also the medical errors that occur that never get recognized as an error. These happen very frequently, and while there is no formal data, we know they occur. What would happen to the researcher who evaluated, say 100 patient charts for a facility, found every medical error and then published their results? That facility would be blasted on social and traditional media for all of the medical errors and the researcher would likely lose both their job and reputation. Because of this, the research either doesn't get done or doesn't get reported outside of the facility.

Do I agree the data is flawed? Yes. Do I agree medical error is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US? Perhaps. I find medical errors every day
All day. I do not need to know this statistic to tell me that the physician who missed a blatant lupus diagnosis 3 years ago on a patient would have saved her from carditis, end-stage renal disease, and anoxic brain injury from coding during an episode of cardiac tamponade last week isn't a problem that needs to be addressed.

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Brandy Gunsolus
Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science
Augusta University Medical Center
Augusta GA
(318) 990-1136
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