{"article":{"id":121648,"heading":"Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause Of Death","author":"Mike Kennedy","created":"2005-01-25 12:48:28","modified":"2013-11-11 00:31:58","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:31:58","article":"

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause Of Death In The US

Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public

Health reports in a paper in the Journal of the American Medical

Association (JAMA) titled  \"Is US Health Really the Best in the World?\"

how doctors are implicated in medical related deaths in the US:

  12,000 unnecessary surgery

    7,000 medication errors in hospitals

  20,000 other errors in hospitals

  80,000 infections in hospitals

106,000 non-error, negative effects of drugs

225,000 total deaths per year.

Dr. Starfield offered several cautions in considering these numbers:

First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.

Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include negative

effects that are associated with disability or discomfort.

Third, the estimates of death due to error are lower than those in an

earlier Institute of Medicine report.

 

If the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to doctors would range

from 230,000 to 284,000.  In any case, 225,000 deaths per year constitutes

the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from

heart disease and cancer (in which medical doctors play a prominent role).

Even if these figures are overestimated, there is a wide margin between

these numbers of deaths and the next leading cause of death

(cerebrovascular disease).

 

Americans Aren't Safe In Outpatient Settings Either

A paper in the British Medical Journal titled \"Epidemology of Medical

Error\" reported that between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients experience

negative effects in outpatient settings, which result in:

116 million extra physician visits

  77 million extra prescriptions

  17 million emergency department visits

    8 million hospitalizations

    3 million long-term admissions

199,000 additional deaths

$77 billion in extra costs



http:\/\/www.noblindmen.com\/Doctors%20Are%20The%20Third%20Leading%20Cause%20Of%20Death.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public\r\nHealth reports in a paper in the Journal of the American Medical\r\nAssociation (JAMA) titled\u00a0 "Is US Health Really the Best in the World?"\r\nhow doctors are implicated in medical related deaths in the US:","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/01\/121648.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":121649,"heading":"America's Healthcare System","article":"America's Healthcare System is the Third Leading Cause of Death\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nBarbara Starfield, M.D. (2000)\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nSummary by Kah Ying Choo\r\n\r\nThis Journal of the American Medical Association article illuminates the\r\nfailure of the U.S. medical system in providing decent medical care for\r\nAmericans. \r\n\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nIn spite of the rising health care costs that provide the illusion of\r\nimproving health care, the American people do not enjoy good health,\r\ncompared with their counterparts in the industrialized nations.\u00a0 Among\r\nthirteen countries including Japan, Sweden, France and Canada, the U.S.\r\nwas ranked 12th, based on the measurement of 16 health indicators such as\r\nlife expectancy, low-birth-weight averages and infant mortality.\u00a0 In\r\nanother comparison reported by the World Health Organization that used a\r\ndifferent set of health indicators, the U.S. also fared poorly with a\r\nranking of 15 among 25 industrialized nations.\r\n\r\nAlthough many people attribute poor health to the bad habits of the\r\nAmerican public, Starfield (2000) points out that the Americans do not\r\nlead an unhealthy lifestyle compared to their counterparts.\u00a0 For example,\r\nonly 28 percent of the male population in the U.S. smoked, thus making it\r\nthe third best nation in the category of smoking among the 13\r\nindustrialized nations.\u00a0 The U.S. population also achieved a high ranking\r\n(5th best) for alcohol consumption.\u00a0 In the category of men aged 50 to 70\r\nyears, the U.S. had the third lowest mean cholesterol concentrations among\r\n13 industrialized nations. Therefore, the perception that the American\r\npublic\u2019s poor health is a result of their negative health habits is\r\nfalse.\r\n\r\nEven more significantly, the medical system has played a large role in\r\nundermining the health of Americans.\u00a0 According to several research\r\nstudies in the last decade, a total of 225,000 Americans per year have\r\ndied as a result of their medical treatments: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\n\u2022 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery\r\n\r\n\u2022 7000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals\r\n\r\n\u2022 20,000 deaths per year due to other errors in hospitals\r\n\r\n\u2022 80,000 deaths per year due to infections in hospitals\r\n\r\n\u2022 106,000 deaths per year due to negative effects of drugs\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nThus, America's healthcare-system-induced deaths are the third leading\r\ncause of the death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nOne of the key problems of the U.S. health system is that as many as 40\r\nmillion people in the U.S. do not have access to healthcare.\u00a0 The social\r\nand economic inequalities that are an integral part of American society\r\nare mirrored in the inequality of access to the health care system.\u00a0\r\nEssentially, families of low socioeconomic status are cut off from\r\nreceiving a decent level of health care. \r\n\r\nBy citing these statistics, Starfield (2000) highlights the need to\r\nexamine the type of health care provided to the U.S. population.\u00a0 The\r\ntraditional medical paradigm that emphasizes the use of prescription\r\nmedicine and medical treatment has not only failed to improve the health\r\nof Americans, but also led to the decline in the overall well-being of\r\nAmericans.\u00a0 Starfield\u2019s (2000) comparison of the medical systems of Japan\r\nand the U.S. captures the fundamental differences in the treatment\r\napproach.\u00a0 Unlike the U.S., Japan has the healthiest population among the\r\nindustrialized nations.\u00a0 Instead of relying on sophisticated technology\r\nand professional personnel for medical treatment as in the U.S., Japan\r\nuses its technology solely for diagnostic purposes.\u00a0 Furthermore, in\r\nJapan, family members, rather than hospital staff, are involved in caring\r\nfor the patients. \r\n\r\nThe success of the Japanese medical system testifies to the dire need for\r\nAmericans to alter their philosophical approach towards health and\r\ntreatment.\u00a0 In the blind reliance on drugs, surgery, technology and\r\nmedical establishments, the American medical system has inflicted more\r\nharm than good on the U.S. population.\u00a0 Starfield\u2019s (2000) article is\r\ninvaluable in unveiling the catastrophic effects of the medical treatments\r\nprovided to the American people.\u00a0 In order to improve the medical system,\r\nAmerican policymakers and the medical establishment need to adopt a\r\ncomprehensive approach and critically examine the failure of the richest\r\ncountry in the world to provide decent health care for its people.\u00a0 The\r\nreason that they have difficulty doing that is explained on the following\r\npage.\r\n\r\nStarfield, B. (2000, July 26). Is US health really the best in the world?\r\nJournal of the American Medical Association, 284(4), 483-485.\r\n\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.health-care-reform.net\/causedeath.htm","author":"Mike Kennedy","parent_id":121648,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-01-25 12:49:29","modified":"2013-11-11 00:31:58","fileurl":""}]}