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Medical Errors Are Number 3 Cause of US Deaths, Researchers Say (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine says medical errors should rank as the third-leading cause of death in the United States -- and highlights how shortcomings in tracking vital statistics may hinder research and keep the problem out of the public eye. The authors, led by Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Martin Makary, call for changes in death certificates to better tabulate fatal lapses in care. In an open letter, they urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to immediately add medical errors to its annual list reporting the top causes of death. Based on an analysis of prior research, the Johns Hopkins study estimates that more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. On the CDC's official list, that would rank just behind heart disease and cancer, which each took about 600,000 lives in 2014, and in front of respiratory disease, which caused about 150,000 deaths. Medical mistakes that can lead to death range from surgical complications that go unrecognized to mix-ups with the doses or types of medications patients receive. The study was published Tuesday in The BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.
I am an ER doctor and I can say that this occurs throughout hospitals throughout the United States every day. I have friends who work in emergency departments (ED) who have such bean counters tell them to see more patients and admit or discharge patients too soon. I work in an emergency department that does not have these bean counters yet but we do have "patient satisfaction" scores based on Press Ganey surveys. We are graded on how well we kept patient informed, spent time with patient, our friendliness, our skill, etc. Patients can score us from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in 7-8 different categories. Most give us 1s or 5s and those that give us low numbers go on to state in the comments that "I didn't get a blanket, water, pain medication, etc" fast enough or "doctor didn't care about my condition". Mind you, most of these folks should not be in the ED in the first place and are at most urgent care patients. No one cares that you were tied up in the back with 4-5 critical patients who are trying to die on us and that we were busy for the past 2 hours to get them up into the ICU with the appropriate interventions made so that they will have a successful outcome. Instead, people are pissed off that you didn't take care of them right away for their symptom(s) or condition(s) and don't care that you (I) was busy elsewhere.
This is the reality of medicine in the United States these days. A doctor who must appease every patient (paying or non-paying thanks to EMTALA) as a waiter must his or her tables so that our patient satisfaction scores do not drop appreciably or else the bean counters will not be happy. if the bean counters are not happy, then you will be looking for another job.
If you want to be treated as a real patient, you better start looking for direct primary care physicians who take your money on a monthly or annual basis. In exchange they will give you their undivided attention in the form of hour long visits, communication via email, and your ability to reach them 24/7 as needed.
http://epmonthly.com/article/2...
Do you want treatment by a stressed out doctor, or no treatment at all?
False dichotomy.
There is more need than can be met by the supply of doctors.
Many other countries deal with this by having PAs and nurses handle routine cases, and only get a doctor involved if symptoms are unusual. Oh, and these countries have far lower costs and better health outcomes than America.