Study: Hospital errors cause 195,000 deaths

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- As many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors, a company said Tuesday in an estimate that doubles previous figures.

Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.

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The U.S. government said it is trying to spearhead a move to get hospitals and clinics to use electronic databases and prescribing methods. The Institute of Medicine report said many deaths were due to medication prescribing errors or to errors in delivering medications.
HealthGrades included as mistakes failure to rescue dying patients and the death of low-risk patients from infections -- neither of which the Institute of Medicine report included.

It said it found about 1.14 million "patient-safety incidents" occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations.

Is it me, or is that number alarming to anyone else ? It's actually a scary thing to be hospitalized, I mean, even more so than the usual "fears" and "worries" of seeing your doctor... you just never know what's going to happen.

I've also heard stories of people waking up from anesthesia during surgery, they are paralized, but can still feel pain. i dont know if its true or not, but i still hope i never have to go "under the knife"

This is very scary I had surgery twice in a year span and I guess I am a lucky one because I can not complain about the treatment I received from the health care professionals.

Originally posted by boondock saint
I've also heard stories of people waking up from anesthesia during surgery, they are paralized, but can still feel pain. i dont know if its true or not, but i still hope i never have to go "under the knife"

Yes, I know someone who woke up during surgery. She was scared to death. Felt pain, but was eventualy put back under. She remembered waking up too, could describe what was going on at the time.