Medical Error Is The Third Leading Cause Of Death In United States, After Heart Disease And Cancer.

The contribution of medical errors to morbidity and mortality has been increasingly recognized during the past 2 decades, and now a scientific community is dedicated to researching medical errors and patient protection. The authors of the current study cite the landmark report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), "To Err is Human," which claimed that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year due to medical errors. However, accurate, transparent information about errors is not captured on death certificates, which are the documents that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses for ranking causes of death and setting health priorities.

Death certificates depend on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for cause of death, so causes such as human and system errors are not recorded on them. Share your views.