Are medical errors really the third leading cause of death in this country?

#1 cause is not searching

and people think Im crazy when fast food messes up more order.

why do doctors make so much if they basically suck at their jobs

What field are you in?

Congrats on the long white coat

Political board thread on this topic actually stayed on point for the most part. Check it out.

I've been told by friends who are doctors that my dad's death could have been prevented (at least delayed for quite some time) had his doctor not dropped the ball. I'm actually a lawyer and was in law school at the time, but I was not interested in pursuing a malpractice suit; it's not like it would have brought him back. The more I think about it, I get really pissed because those doctor friends said that what ended up killing him was something a med school student would have known to check out.

and there are errors of omission because you won't have time to learn all the latest things until they are mainstream and taught at your credential renewal course.

I find it odd how many people get much more sick once they go to the hospital. I have 4 relatives in the past 5 years who have been on the brink of death because of stuff they caught in a hospital. One was hospitalized for 6 months because a doctor accidentally cut her colon open and she got a huge infection

This is exactly like lumping in suicides, homicides and justifiable homicides all together as Gun Deaths. Not all of the "medical errors" are actual physician malpractice errors. You have to dig into the information yourself.

Having recently had a parent who was gravely ill, I can attest that the level of care in most hospitals is quite bad. The background if that my father is 70 years old and is a Type I diabetic. He has had a relatively healthy life but, it finally caught up with him. He got a would on his foot that was not properly diagnosed by his physician which was indeed a Staph Infection. He ended up in the hospital at Shands at the University of Florida. They were absolutely horrible in terms of the quality of care. They were incapable of doing anything other than what protocol called for in terms of managing his diabetes. They could not comprehend that the sliding scale does not work well with him. At one point, they allowed his sugar to rach 800.

Yes, it was 800 while in the hospital. It fried his brian as a result of that incident. He nearly died several times and was comatose for a few days.

Shands was a filthy hospital. While there his Staph infection turned into MRSA which resulted in an amputation of his foot at the calf. He has profound brain damage as well.

He lived through the ordeal and is basically like a child in his decision making now. He requires constant care and will never have any quality of life for whatever time he has remaining.

His malpractice involves improper diagnosis/testing because his original doctor did not order a culture and place him on antibiotics. He was not properly referred to a wound care clinic in a timely basis.

Improper care by diabetes Doctors. I stood face to face with the Doctor and told her that what she was doing was going to kill him. She said that she is following the sliding scale and would not deviate from it.

Filthy conditions. MRSA infection as result of exposure while in that damned filthy hospital.

Litigation has begun on his case but, that will never make him whole again. Additionally, my Mother's life is a nightmare because now, she has to nurse my father 24/7. That is all she does is provide care for him. Not much of a life for her.

I'm guessing alot of the negative comments in here are from some who have never experienced what it is like to work in healthcare.

You really should understand what is happening in the average ED. The vast majority of patients coming in are misrepresenting their symptoms, exaggerating their symptoms, high, drunk, don't know their medications, don't know their medical history, misrepresent their drug allergies, lying for secondary gain, etc. For every ten of those patients their is the little old lady sent from the nursing home with an upset stomach who is the only one of the bunch who is actually having a heart attack. Somehow you have to sift through all of that bullshite. It's not as cut and dry as you think. Should we order MRIs and EKGs on everyone?

No. You use your clinical judgement to allocate the resources we have. When this is the case, statistically, bad outcomes will always happen. Please direct me to the moment that anyone has claimed MDs to be perfect, tests to be 100% accurate, etc.

But yet somehow you are all appalled by a study citing medical errors using extrapolated data and "death estimations". Wake up, medicine is difficult and complicated, but it's getting better everyday.