Medical errors seem to be plaguing hospitals, troubling physicians, and endangering patients. But how serious is the problem, and what can be done about it? At the Institute for Healthcare Improvement meeting held in Orlando, Florida, from Dec. 8-11, a special presentation focused on patient safety, and the most recent issue of Consumer Reports offers patient comments about their own experiences with medical errors. The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “To Err is Human,” describes the breadth of medical errors in the U.S. and suggests that more Americans die each year from hospital errors than from motor vehicle accidents.
But an article in the Dec. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has a different take on the situation. Investigators surveyed 831 practicing physicians and 1,207 members of the general public about the causes of and solutions to the problem of preventable medical errors. Although 35% of physicians and 42% of members of the public reported errors in their own or in a family member’s care, neither group was as concerned about the problem as the IOM report suggests. Both groups believed that the number of in-hospital deaths resulting from errors was much lower than that cited by the IOM report. The editorialist suggests a new approach to thinking about medical errors, pointing out that more patients die from errors of omission such as failure to treat blood pressure.
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