Archive for October, 2014

Americans Killed by Medical Errors Today

Sunday, October 26th, 2014

Current events have sparked popular tweets like this:

deaths-today

As referenced by the West Health To Err is Human: Interoperability is Divine article, based on a 300,000 annual death rate, the following could be added to the list:

Americans killed by medical errors today: 822

This shocking statistic positions medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer.

Also see Deaths by medical mistakes hit records. Pretty depressing.

This is a complex problem to solve, but reducing preventable deaths with improved patient safety technology should be a priority. No duh!