That includes doctors and other members of the medical fraternity. Johns Hopkins Medicine has just published a study of medical errors, which they assert is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. Only heart disease and cancer kill more people, according to the John Hopkins people.
The CDC keeps these numbers. However, the CDC asks for only the “underlying cause of death,” which is defined as the condition that led a person to seek treatment. So, if someone dies because the oncologist screwed up, the cause of death is cancer rather than doctor error.
The Johns Hopkins’ authors said the inability to capture the full impact of medical errors results in a lack of public attention and a failure to invest in research. They called for adding a new question to death certificates specifically asking if a preventable complication of care contributed. But would doctors report that a patient died from a medical error?
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