Personal Injury Law

Medical Error is One of the Leading Causes of Death

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

Did you know that preventable medical errors are the sixth leading cause of death in the United States? The Institute of Medicine has discovered that as many as 98,000 people die every year in the United States from medical negligence. Medical error claims more lives than diabetes and influenza. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office has found that 180,000 people are injured every year by these preventable medical errors. It?s obvious that the most direct way to decrease the amount of medical malpractice claims is to focus on reducing the incidence of medical malpractice. By enacting certain safety measures, the medical community could decrease many deaths every year. For example, surgical checklists would greatly reduce the amount of medical deaths. Also, medical personnel should always be required to wash their hands in order to decrease the amount of staff infections. If these little measures are implemented, hospitals could greatly decrease the 98,000 people who wrongfully die every year. If that number decreases, the number of medical malpractice claims would also decrease.

While many Republicans claim that tort reform is the way to decrease medical malpractice cases, it is time to focus on the true problem. Instead we should all be focusing on how we can reduce the number of medical negligent deaths. In fact, while the number of medical negligent deaths has remained steady, the number of medical malpractice lawsuits has decreased. If you have been a victim of medical negligence, consult a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer. To read more about Illinois medical malpractice, please check out the Illinois? white paper.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).