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A study published in the BMJ found that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States:
The IOM, based on one study, estimated deaths because of medical errors as high as 98,000 a year. Makary's research involves a more comprehensive analysis of four large studies, including ones by the Health and Human Services Department's Office of the Inspector General and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that took place between 2000 to 2008. His calculation of 251,000 deaths equates to nearly 700 deaths a day — about 9.5 percent of all deaths annually in the United States.
And from the airplane analogy, a simple fix: checklists.
Is it time for a system theory approach to medicine?
Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US (DOI: 10.1136/bmj.i2139)
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday May 14 2016, @06:55PM
Well, a child has very little economic value as well as an old man. In fact children dying off is probably good for overall health of the species. Effective medicine should target people of 20-50 - the most productive age - who, conveniently, don't get sick that much. Based on pure efficiency, society medical expenses could be cut 2 orders of magnitude easily with better overall results. The US healthcare does exactly the opposite.
Note that this is not what I propose. This is what an efficient market would do if it ever come to be.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2016, @07:49AM
There's already an accepted metric in the field. Loss of "quality-adjusted life years". Not everyone's years are the same. Tube-breathing wheelchair-bound 60 year old on a morphine drip croaks it after a boobed procedure - very few QALYs lost.