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In recent years, medical errors may have become one of the top causes of death in the US, according to a study published in The BMJ.
Investigators analyzed medical death rate data over an 8-year period and calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year may be due to medical error.
That figure surpasses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) third leading cause of death—respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.
The investigators said the CDC’s way of collecting national health statistics fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. So the team is advocating for updated criteria for classifying deaths.
“Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” said study author Martin Makary, MD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
“The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used.”
Dr Makary noted that, in 1949, the US adopted an international form that used International Classification of Diseases (ICD) billing codes to tally causes of death.
“At that time, it was under-recognized that diagnostic errors, medical mistakes, and the absence of safety nets could result in someone’s death, and because of that, medical errors were unintentionally excluded from national health statistics,” Dr Makary said.
He pointed out that, since that time, national mortality statistics have been tabulated using billing codes, which don’t have a built-in way to recognize incidence rates of mortality due to medical care gone wrong.
For the current study, Dr Makary and Michael Daniel, also of Johns Hopkins, examined 4 separate studies that analyzed medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008.
Then, using hospital admission rates from 2013, the investigators extrapolated that, based on a total of 35,416,020 hospitalizations, 251,454 deaths stemmed from medical error. This translates to 9.5% of all deaths each year in the US.
According to the CDC, in 2013, 611,105 people died of heart disease, 584,881 died of cancer, and 149,205 died of chronic respiratory disease.
These were the top 3 causes of death in the US. The newly calculated figure for medical errors puts this cause of death behind cancer but ahead of respiratory disease.
“Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country’s research funding and public health priorities,” Dr Makary said. “Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves.”
The investigators said most medical errors aren’t due to inherently bad doctors, and reporting these errors shouldn’t be addressed by punishment or legal action.
Rather, the pair believes that most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.
“Unwarranted variation is endemic in healthcare,” Dr Makary said. “Developing consensus protocols that streamline the delivery of medicine and reduce variability can improve quality and lower costs in healthcare. More research on preventing medical errors from occurring is needed to address the problem.” 
while another looks on
Photo courtesy of NCI
In recent years, medical errors may have become one of the top causes of death in the US, according to a study published in The BMJ.
Investigators analyzed medical death rate data over an 8-year period and calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year may be due to medical error.
That figure surpasses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) third leading cause of death—respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.
The investigators said the CDC’s way of collecting national health statistics fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. So the team is advocating for updated criteria for classifying deaths.
“Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” said study author Martin Makary, MD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
“The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used.”
Dr Makary noted that, in 1949, the US adopted an international form that used International Classification of Diseases (ICD) billing codes to tally causes of death.
“At that time, it was under-recognized that diagnostic errors, medical mistakes, and the absence of safety nets could result in someone’s death, and because of that, medical errors were unintentionally excluded from national health statistics,” Dr Makary said.
He pointed out that, since that time, national mortality statistics have been tabulated using billing codes, which don’t have a built-in way to recognize incidence rates of mortality due to medical care gone wrong.
For the current study, Dr Makary and Michael Daniel, also of Johns Hopkins, examined 4 separate studies that analyzed medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008.
Then, using hospital admission rates from 2013, the investigators extrapolated that, based on a total of 35,416,020 hospitalizations, 251,454 deaths stemmed from medical error. This translates to 9.5% of all deaths each year in the US.
According to the CDC, in 2013, 611,105 people died of heart disease, 584,881 died of cancer, and 149,205 died of chronic respiratory disease.
These were the top 3 causes of death in the US. The newly calculated figure for medical errors puts this cause of death behind cancer but ahead of respiratory disease.
“Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country’s research funding and public health priorities,” Dr Makary said. “Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves.”
The investigators said most medical errors aren’t due to inherently bad doctors, and reporting these errors shouldn’t be addressed by punishment or legal action.
Rather, the pair believes that most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.
“Unwarranted variation is endemic in healthcare,” Dr Makary said. “Developing consensus protocols that streamline the delivery of medicine and reduce variability can improve quality and lower costs in healthcare. More research on preventing medical errors from occurring is needed to address the problem.”
while another looks on
Photo courtesy of NCI
In recent years, medical errors may have become one of the top causes of death in the US, according to a study published in The BMJ.
Investigators analyzed medical death rate data over an 8-year period and calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year may be due to medical error.
That figure surpasses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) third leading cause of death—respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.
The investigators said the CDC’s way of collecting national health statistics fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. So the team is advocating for updated criteria for classifying deaths.
“Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” said study author Martin Makary, MD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
“The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used.”
Dr Makary noted that, in 1949, the US adopted an international form that used International Classification of Diseases (ICD) billing codes to tally causes of death.
“At that time, it was under-recognized that diagnostic errors, medical mistakes, and the absence of safety nets could result in someone’s death, and because of that, medical errors were unintentionally excluded from national health statistics,” Dr Makary said.
He pointed out that, since that time, national mortality statistics have been tabulated using billing codes, which don’t have a built-in way to recognize incidence rates of mortality due to medical care gone wrong.
For the current study, Dr Makary and Michael Daniel, also of Johns Hopkins, examined 4 separate studies that analyzed medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008.
Then, using hospital admission rates from 2013, the investigators extrapolated that, based on a total of 35,416,020 hospitalizations, 251,454 deaths stemmed from medical error. This translates to 9.5% of all deaths each year in the US.
According to the CDC, in 2013, 611,105 people died of heart disease, 584,881 died of cancer, and 149,205 died of chronic respiratory disease.
These were the top 3 causes of death in the US. The newly calculated figure for medical errors puts this cause of death behind cancer but ahead of respiratory disease.
“Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country’s research funding and public health priorities,” Dr Makary said. “Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves.”
The investigators said most medical errors aren’t due to inherently bad doctors, and reporting these errors shouldn’t be addressed by punishment or legal action.
Rather, the pair believes that most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.
“Unwarranted variation is endemic in healthcare,” Dr Makary said. “Developing consensus protocols that streamline the delivery of medicine and reduce variability can improve quality and lower costs in healthcare. More research on preventing medical errors from occurring is needed to address the problem.”