The truth is that many people are killed by "legal" drugs, and by addiction to street drugs because they started on medical drugs. Deaths in hospitals are easily passed off as caused by some disease when, in fact, they are often caused by errors in the hospital.
The campaign to popularize AIDS is a political campaign -- unrelated to true health issues.
This article in the Wall Street Journal is just another of many stories which are starting to expose the truth in health care.
By RON WINSLOW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical mistakes made while they are in the hospital, according to a major study that calls for a broad national strategy to reduce that toll.
The report paints a disturbing picture of medical care in America in which patients are vulnerable not only to their illnesses but to a flawed health-care delivery system that is characterized by problems as mundane as sloppy handwriting on prescriptions and as complex as a torrent of new medical knowledge that leaves doctors and other practitioners struggling to keep up.
The consequences can be lethal. Even the report's lowest estimate of fatalities means errors in care cause more deaths than automobile accidents, breast cancer or AIDS, its authors say. The total costs of preventable mistakes in health care, not only those mistakes that lead to death -- in medical and disability expenses and lost productivity -- could be as high as $29 billion, according to the study.
"These stunningly high rates of medical errors ... are simply unacceptable in a medical system that promises first to 'do no harm,' " said William Richardson, president and chief executive of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, Mich., who headed the committee that wrote the report. The committee worked under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine, a private organization established by Congress to provide advice on medical issues.
The report says most mistakes aren't caused by reckless or unskilled practitioners but by systemic flaws that seem to build the opportunity for error into medical practice. Yet individual practitioners typically get blamed for mistakes -- a practice that discourages efforts to devise remedies to prevent future mistakes.
"Hospitals and health-care organizations have to get their focus off [individual doctors and nurses] and onto systems," said Lucian Leape, an adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the Institute of Medicine committee. "We think the organization should be accountable." For instance, the report says, deaths have resulted from hospitals stocking certain drugs in dose-levels that are known to be toxic and that shouldn't be administered to patients unless they are diluted.
Dr. Leape called for the nation's health-care system to approach its mistakes much the way airlines do -- as potential systemic problems whether the pilot made an error or not.
The American Hospital Association, a trade group representing many of the nation's hospitals, called the study "important," but noted that hospitals do have "checks and balances" in place to reduce the potential for error and are committed to improving patient safety.
"What this report acknowledges is a need for better safeguards and systems for doctors and nurses and others to minimize the possibility of errors," said Richard Wade, senior vice president of the hospital group. "Is the system we have now adequate? No, it is not."
The report calls for the establishment of a National Center for Patient Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services to set safety standards, fund research and track progress toward meeting safety goals. The report urged a goal of reducing errors by 50% within five years.
It also proposed the establishment of a mandatory standardized public reporting system for all errors that lead to "serious injury or death" to foster knowledge about treatments and processes that lead to such mistakes. About one-third of states have their own mandatory reporting systems.
It urged voluntary reporting of less serious errors -- with much information kept confidential -- to encourage an environment where mistakes can be discussed.
--Shailagh Murray contributed to this article.
Write to Ron Winslow and Shailagh Murray at Ron.Winslow@wsj.com1 and Shailagh.Murray@wsj.com2
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