dimanche 25 septembre 2016

Medical Malpractice Causes Thousands Of Complications Per Year In The U.S. – ‘Preventable Harm’ Is One Of The Leading Cause Of Deaths In A Hospital, Claims Research

Medical Mistakes Cause 200K To 440K Deaths Per Year In The U.S. - 'Preventable Harm' Is One Of The Leading Cause Of Deaths In A Hospital [Report]

Medical errors or malpractice kill way more people in the U.S. each year than some of the most dreaded diseases. While actual figures are near impossible to get, persistent reports indicate hundreds of thousands of patients suffer due to preventable medical harm in American hospitals.

Journal of Patient Safety had claimed in 2013 that the professional medical fraternity is responsible for the death of more people than quite a few epidemics. The report claimed between 210,000 and 440,000 patients who visit the hospitals for medical attention end up suffering from some type of preventable harm. The gross negligence or medical malpractice contributes to the death of a large number of individuals, the study added.

According to The Ellsworth American, medical errors or preventable harm has been one of the top three leading causes of death in the United States and entails a huge monetary loss. The study claims medical malpractice sits right below heart disease, which is the number two cause, while cancer continues to remain the number one killer in America. Preventable medical harm is way ahead of respiratory illness, which kills 150,000 people each year.

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The numbers are merely an approximation owing to the poor classification standards, perhaps deliberately, adopted by the medical fraternity. According to experts, “medical errors” are never classified as such. This is primarily because there has never been a separate classification on death certificates, and neither do annual statistics dealing with hospital deaths specifically mention that the patient died due to medical mistakes or preventable harm.

Nonetheless, some of the most common types of medical mistakes or malpractices can be observed in the majority of the hospitals scattered across the U.S. Besides the horrible handwriting, medical professionals often poorly or incorrectly diagnose a patient and even put him on incorrect medication, which worsens the situation. There have been uncorroborated cases involving patients who had been wrongly operated on or had undergone completely unnecessary procedures. Many of the patients have been gravely injured, while few even died unnecessarily. A few experts pointed out the high chances of blood contamination owing to the close proximity of dialysis machines. A single drop of contaminated blood can cause severe complications, leaving the patient with more troubles than they arrived with.

The 2013 report was compiled by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston. James runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America. He is the author of A Sea of Broken Hearts. Incidentally, his 19-year-old-son was allegedly the victim of “negligent hospital care.” James’ estimates are way higher than put forth by the Institute of Medicine (IoM). According to the IoM, close to 100,000 patients die each year owing to poor medical care or mistakes committed by medical professionals.

Many experts claim the real figures might never surface because of gross inaccuracies in medical records, and the strong reluctance shown by quite a few healthcare providers to report deaths due to preventable harm. In essence, a large number of organizations might be filing the death of the patient with an inaccurate, but a lot more plausible, reason, rather than mentioning he or she could have lived if not for the medical mistakes the staff committed.

Interestingly, the medical fraternity does have an unofficial coding structure that identifies deaths due to medical mistakes. In medical vernacular, such incidents are chalked under “adverse events.” They are screened using a method referred to as the “Global Trigger Tool.” Those interested to spot such deaths have to be experts in the medical field because they have to meticulously hunt for notations that strongly imply signs of infection, injury or error.

Deaths due to medical errors could account for about one-sixth of all deaths that occur in the United States each year. However, there are very little organized efforts to force healthcare providers to compile and publish statistics. As American lives are at stake, should Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debate on the issue?

[Featured Image by Martin Barraud/Getty Images]

Medical Malpractice Causes Thousands Of Complications Per Year In The U.S. – ‘Preventable Harm’ Is One Of The Leading Cause Of Deaths In A Hospital, Claims Research is an article from: The Inquisitr News

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