Doctor with Stethoscope

Medical Errors – The Third Leading Cause of Death

History tells us it can take decades before a medical truth becomes accepted as fact, and recent headlines are a perfect example of this. Sixteen years ago, I read an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that stunned me. I was shocked JAMA published it. Although the article did not explicitly state it, the data was very clear.

So I published my summary of the study, which revealed that doctors are in fact the third leading cause of death in the U.S.1

May 18, 2016 | Source: Mercola.com | by Dr. Joseph Mercola

History tells us it can take decades before a medical truth becomes accepted as fact, and recent headlines are a perfect example of this. Sixteen years ago, I read an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that stunned me. I was shocked JAMA published it. Although the article did not explicitly state it, the data was very clear.

So I published my summary of the study, which revealed that doctors are in fact the third leading cause of death in the U.S.1

You likely have seen this statistic or headline, but you may not be aware that I was the one who created that headline, which has been widely circulated on the internet and virtually never attributed to me as the person who saw through the data to make that conclusion.

Dr. Barbara Starfield was the author of that JAMA study, published in 2000, and her research documented how a staggering 225,000 Americans die from iatrogenic causes, meaning their death is caused by a physician’s or hospital’s activity, manner, or therapy. Her statistics showed that each year:

  • 12,000 die from unnecessary surgery
  • 7,000 die from medication errors in hospitals
  • 20,000 die from other errors in hospitals
  • 80,000 die from hospital-acquired infections
  • 106,000 die from the negative side effects of drugs taken as prescribed

Back then, few people believed it, but in recent days headlines echoing my original 2000 article have made the rounds in many of the major media outlets.2,3,4,5,6,7

One of the reasons why many are still surprised by these statistics is due to fundamental flaws in the tracking of medical errors, which has shielded the reality of the situation and kept it out of the public eye.

Medical Errors Are STILL the Third Leading Cause of Death

Dr. Starfield’s findings 16 years ago still stand today. In fact, recent research suggests matters have only gotten worse, and the reason for this is because no affirmative action was ever taken to address and correct the situation.

According to a new study8 published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), medical errors now kill an estimated 250,000 Americans each year, an increase of about 25,000 people annually from Dr. Starfield’s estimates.

That means medical errors are STILL the third leading cause of death, right after heart disease and cancer. These numbers may actually be vastly underestimated, as deaths occurring at home or in nursing homes are not included.

As shown by Dr. Starfield’s research, side effects from drugs, taken as prescribed, account for the vast majority of iatrogenic deaths. Research9 published in 2013 estimated that preventable hospital errors kill 210,000 Americans each year — a figure that is very close to the latest statistics.

However, when they included deaths related to diagnostic errors, errors of omission, and failure to follow guidelines, the number skyrocketed to 440,000 preventable hospital deaths each year. This too hints at the true enormity of the problem.