Too Many Unnecessary Deaths

The numbers are just not right.   Visit Take Back Justice and check out the list of facts:

The Facts:

• 440,000 patients die every year from preventable medical errors.  [Journal of Patient Safety]
• Preventable medical errors cost our country tens of billions of dollars a year.  [Institute of Medicine]
• One in three patients who are admitted to the hospital will experience a medical error.  [Health Affairs]
• Studies of wrong site, wrong surgery, wrong patient procedures show that “never events” are happening at an alarming rate of up to 40 times per week in U.S. hospitals.  [Archives of Surgery]
• Medical negligence lawsuits amount to just one-half of one percent of all health care costs.  [Congressional Budget Office]
• Medical negligence cases represent well under 2 percent of all civil cases.  [National Center for State Courts]
• Researchers at Harvard University found that 97 percent of cases were meritorious, concluding, “Portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown.”  [New England Journal of Medicine]

Also read about the real stories of people who have suffered themselves and seen the loss of their loved ones.

These are numbers that no one should be happy with.   They need to be examined and they need to be reduced.  I hope if the usual comments show up at this blog there is at least some solution on how to stop losing these lives.   Or a bit of sympathy for those who have died.