Consumer Law

Some gallows humor regarding medical malpractice

By Justinian Lane

If you?re not on LinkedIn, you probably should be.  (Feel free to add me to your network.)  One of the great features of the site is the ability to ask questions and get answers from a variety of people.  TortDeform contributor Lee Tilson asked a question about what he could do to help prevent malpractice from occurring in the first place, and one of the responses contained this bit of gallows humor:

FACTS TO PONDER:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.
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Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(Yes, that's 80 million..)
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(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
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(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188
Statistics courtesy of the FBI
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So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
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Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

I have no idea of these statistics are accurate, but I thought I?d share this.  And please don?t take this as doctor bashing ? I believe that the vast majority of medical errors are made by well-qualified doctors who aren?t under the influence of any intoxicating substance.  As always, I welcome any suggestions on how to prevent medical errors in the first place, rather than talking about the financial problems caused after they occur.

Full post as published by TortDeform.com on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).