Medical Errors Now Fifth Leading Cause of Death in the US

Move over hospital-acquired infections, medical error has got you beat in the US.

Today’s news feeds are reporting “Medical errors are the fifth leading cause of death in the US and cost about $29 billion a year.” This is based on information in a recent Institute of Medicine report. Officials are looking for answers to help solve this problem and are prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to understand the cause. “We’ve got to pay that kind of attention to this cause of death,” said Dr. John Eisenberg, director of the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

It is reported that ten percent of hospital admissions in the US occur because of problems with pharmaceuticals and that twelve percent of hospital deaths occur because of errors in the operating room.

Also reported was the staggering number of deaths yearly due to contaminated injections. According to the World Health Organization:

Contaminated needles infect between 8 and 16 million people with hepatitis B.
Contaminated needles infect between 2.3 to 4.7 million people with hepatitis C.
Contaminated needles infect between 80,000 to 160,000 with HIV.
A total of about 1.3 million deaths yearly are due to contaminated injections.

There will be a lot of cash spent over the next few years to try and “fix” this problem. Chiropractors have been offering a solution for more than 100 years.

Choose Your Link
Yahoo News: Medical errors becoming major research focus
FOX News: Medical errors becoming major research focus