Medical errors kill tens of thousands annually, panel says

Anesthesiologists made their field safer by getting manufacturers to standardize equipment

November 30, 1999
Web posted at: 12:20 a.m. EST (0520 GMT)

In this story: Most errors involve medication Suggested laws would require reporting errors RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More people die each year in the United States from medical errors than from highway accidents, breast cancer or AIDS, a federal advisory panel reported Monday.

The report from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine cited studies showing between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year because of mistakes by medical professionals.

"That's probably an underestimate for two reasons," noted Dr. Donald Berwick of the Institute of Medicine.

"One is, there are many different kinds of errors we never learn about -- even in retrospective studies -- because they are never written down. And second, these studies did not include other areas of care like home care, nursing homes and ambulatory care centers," Berwick said.

MESSAGE BOARD Medical errors

The groundbreaking report urged Congress to create a National Center for Patient Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services to set goals for avoiding medical mistakes, track progress in meeting them and to fund research on better ways to prevent such errors.

It suggested as a minimum goal a 50 percent reduction in medical errors within five years.

The American Medical Association said that while any error that harms a patient is one error too many, "overwhelmingly the system of medicine in the United States is safe .. when you consider the millions of doctor/patient interactions each day."

Most errors involve medication

The institute said medication errors are among the most widespread -- everything from the stocking of full-strength drugs in hospitals that may be toxic if not diluted, to improper administering of medicines that results from illegible writing in a patient's medical record.

In addition, the report said, "when a patient is treated by several practitioners, they often do not have complete information about the medicines prescribed or the patient's illnesses."

The institute said tens of thousands of people die in hospitals alone each year as the result of medical errors. It cited one study that put the number of such deaths at 44,000 annually and another that more than doubled that figure.

"Even using the lower estimate," it said, "more people die from medical mistakes each year than from highway accidents, breast cancer or AIDS."

It said medication errors that take place both in and out of hospitals total more than 7,000, exceeding those from workplace injuries.

"These stunningly high rates of medical errors -- resulting in deaths, permanent disability and unnecessary suffering -- are simply unacceptable in a medical system that promises first to 'do no harm,'" said William Richardson, chairman of the committee that wrote the report and chief executive officer of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Hospital administrators say they have been putting in more machine-driven backstops, such as automated drug dispensers. But, they say, it is impossible to eliminate all errors.

Medical care is "people taking care of people, one patient at a time -- and as long as we have human beings doing that .. the potential is going to be there for human beings to make mistakes," said the Vice President of the American Hospital Association Rick Ward.

Suggested laws would require reporting errors

The Institute of Medicine panel urged the enactment of laws requiring hospitals first -- and later clinics, doctor's offices and nursing homes -- to report to state officials any deaths or serious injuries caused by medical errors.

Information on errors resulting in less serious consequences would be given in return for confidentiality to encourage the growth of voluntary reporting systems.

The report said the creation of federal agencies focusing on safety has dramatically reduced the number of deaths from domestic airline flights and in the workplace. It said creating such an agency for the regulation of health care is at least a decade overdue and could have a similar impact in that field.

The proposed Center for Patient Safety also would act as a clearinghouse, an objective source of information on patient safety nationwide, the institute said.

The Institute of Medicine is a private, nonprofit institution that provides health policy advice to the federal government under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences.

Correspondent Eileen O'Connor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.