Medical Errors in Hospitals: Third Leading Cause of Death in America

New Hampshire Pubic Radio reports on the recent U.S. Senate subcommittee panel on preventable medical errors, where health safety experts testified on the high rate of medical errors in hospitals leading to death. The hearing was titled "More Than 1,000 Preventable Deaths a Day Is Too Many: The Need to Improve Patient Safety."

Those numbers are according to a study published in the Journal of Patient Safety that reveals medical mistakes in hospitals account for up to 440,000 patient death each year — which makes medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease and cancer. 

The NHPR article states,

"The health care community is not doing enough to track and prevent widespread harm to patients, and preventable deaths and injuries in hospitals and other settings will continue unless Congress takes action, medical experts said Thursday [July 17] on Capitol Hill."

Experts agreed that better measurement and reporting of patient harms is needed. Some called for a National Patient Safety Board to investigate patient harms.

For more information on the hearing, please see the full article on nhpr.com:
Health Safety Experts Call For Public Reporting Of Medical Harms

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