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Medical Malpractice: yearly tolls and averages

By Megan Roth

One – I've only ever had one surgery (knock on wood) and it was a minor surgery, at that. I've been pretty darn lucky thus far; however, the fact that I've only had one operation doesn't mean I haven't been exposed to risks for a serious medical mishap.

In fact, every time a surgical operation is performed there are risks of medical and surgical malpractice. It's true: one time is all it takes. A single wrong move or minor error (ranging from pre-operative care to perforations of internal organs during the procedure itself) plays a huge factor in determining the results of any given procedure.

In fact, between 2000 and 2002, approximately 195,000 people in the US died each year due to medical errors that could've (and should have) been prevented.

These figures came from a HealthGrades' report, which also highlighted the fact that the deaths per year were nearly double the numbers in 1999. And remember these numbers were pulled in the early 2000s; nowadays, they run closer to 225,000 deaths per year due to medical malpractice (half of which are from emergency room errors).

And, if the tens of thousands of lost lives aren't bad enough, throw away over $6 billion with them (as this is the average yearly cost stemming from medical malpractice). To be honest, we may as well throw away a lot more than $6 billion; we might as well toss out $35 billion – the average cost per year for both personal care costs and medical liability combined.

And if that doesn't have your skin crawling, check out these figures:

• There are 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery
• There are 7000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals
• Another 20,000 individuals die each year due to other errors in hospitals
• Still another 80,0000 die each year due to infections in hospitals
• And (inside and outside of hospitals combined), 106,000 individuals die each year due to negative effects of drugs.

Yikes – makes it easy to understand how so many people have a fear of doctors; granted, the number of successful surgery cases far outweighs the number of malpractice suits. However, that doesn't mean such cases are any less important.

It's a scary thing, to think one may go in for a routine procedure and leave with a life-threatening condition they never thought would exist (such as a medical device being left inside someone after they've been stitched up).

Scary and disgusting. And this is only the beginning. Unfortunately there's more to come – much, much more to come.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Megan Roth

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).