More than 250,000 people in the United States die every year from medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer, according to a 2016 Johns Hopkins study.
Another study reported higher figures and estimated numbers of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients at more than 400,000 per year.
The actual number could be larger still. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2012 that 86 percent of all hospital bedside mistakes aren’t reported because they were events “that staff did not perceive as reportable (61 percent) or as events that staff commonly report but did not report in this case (25 percent).”
More recently, a report from the National Healthcare Safety Network that was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2021 found significant increases in the leading preventable causes of hospital death during the pandemic. For example, central line-associated bloodstream infections increased 97 to 148 percent in reported hospitals in several states in the third quarter of 2020, compared to the year-earlier period.
In 2016, authors of the Johns Hopkins study appealed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change how it collects data from death certificates to capture medical errors. As of 2022, the CDC still doesn’t include medical errors as a cause of death in the national health statistics report.
Because medical errors aren’t “counted” as a leading cause of death, they aren’t getting the public health investment or attention they merit, experts say. Just like we invest billions of dollars of funding in preventive care for heart disease, these health advocates say we need to invest in the systems and training needed to prevent medical errors.
Knowing how we can advocate for our health—and work with health care professionals while in the hospital to avoid the leading preventable causes of hospital death—can be the difference between living and dying.
Dr. Ann Hester is the author of “Patient Empowerment 101." Her book outlines the most common causes of preventable hospital death and what we can do to stay safe in the hospital. Hester is a board-certified internal medicine doctor with more than 25 years of clinical experience, spending most of her career as a physician assistant providing direct in-hospital patient care.
“While you’re in hospital, you need to make wise decisions and you need to be a partner in your care,” Hester said in my recent interview with her on “Discovering True Health.”
Common Treatments With Known Risks
Each year, thousands of Americans die from preventable hospital-associated infections, and those numbers skyrocketed during the pandemic.
“If you get an infection while in hospital, they’ll put you on antibiotics,” Hester said.
Taking antibiotics can increase your risk of C. diff by seven to 10 times. C. diff is a germ (bacterium) that causes diarrhea and colitis (an inflammation of the colon) and can be life-threatening.
Also, drug-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) has been implicated in 8 percent to 60 percent of all cases of in-hospital AKI and is a recognized source of significant morbidity and mortality.
Because of this, Hester said, “You want to be exposed to the fewest number of chemicals as possible.”
Bacterial infections from central line IVs and catheters are two avoidable significant health care-associated infections that can be fatal.
