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



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America's Healthcare System is the Third Leading Cause of Death

   

Barbara Starfield, M.D. (2000)

    

Summary by Kah Ying Choo

This Journal of the American Medical Association article illuminates the

failure of the U.S. medical system in providing decent medical care for

Americans.

  

In spite of the rising health care costs that provide the illusion of

improving health care, the American people do not enjoy good health,

compared with their counterparts in the industrialized nations.  Among

thirteen countries including Japan, Sweden, France and Canada, the U.S.

was ranked 12th, based on the measurement of 16 health indicators such as

life expectancy, low-birth-weight averages and infant mortality.  In

another comparison reported by the World Health Organization that used a

different set of health indicators, the U.S. also fared poorly with a

ranking of 15 among 25 industrialized nations.

Although many people attribute poor health to the bad habits of the

American public, Starfield (2000) points out that the Americans do not

lead an unhealthy lifestyle compared to their counterparts.  For example,

only 28 percent of the male population in the U.S. smoked, thus making it

the third best nation in the category of smoking among the 13

industrialized nations.  The U.S. population also achieved a high ranking

(5th best) for alcohol consumption.  In the category of men aged 50 to 70

years, the U.S. had the third lowest mean cholesterol concentrations among

13 industrialized nations. Therefore, the perception that the American

public’s poor health is a result of their negative health habits is

false.

Even more significantly, the medical system has played a large role in

undermining the health of Americans.  According to several research

studies in the last decade, a total of 225,000 Americans per year have

died as a result of their medical treatments:     

• 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery

• 7000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals

• 20,000 deaths per year due to other errors in hospitals

• 80,000 deaths per year due to infections in hospitals

• 106,000 deaths per year due to negative effects of drugs

    

Thus, America's healthcare-system-induced deaths are the third leading

cause of the death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.

    

One of the key problems of the U.S. health system is that as many as 40

million people in the U.S. do not have access to healthcare.  The social

and economic inequalities that are an integral part of American society

are mirrored in the inequality of access to the health care system. 

Essentially, families of low socioeconomic status are cut off from

receiving a decent level of health care.

By citing these statistics, Starfield (2000) highlights the need to

examine the type of health care provided to the U.S. population.  The

traditional medical paradigm that emphasizes the use of prescription

medicine and medical treatment has not only failed to improve the health

of Americans, but also led to the decline in the overall well-being of

Americans.  Starfield’s (2000) comparison of the medical systems of Japan

and the U.S. captures the fundamental differences in the treatment

approach.  Unlike the U.S., Japan has the healthiest population among the

industrialized nations.  Instead of relying on sophisticated technology

and professional personnel for medical treatment as in the U.S., Japan

uses its technology solely for diagnostic purposes.  Furthermore, in

Japan, family members, rather than hospital staff, are involved in caring

for the patients.

The success of the Japanese medical system testifies to the dire need for

Americans to alter their philosophical approach towards health and

treatment.  In the blind reliance on drugs, surgery, technology and

medical establishments, the American medical system has inflicted more

harm than good on the U.S. population.  Starfield’s (2000) article is

invaluable in unveiling the catastrophic effects of the medical treatments

provided to the American people.  In order to improve the medical system,

American policymakers and the medical establishment need to adopt a

comprehensive approach and critically examine the failure of the richest

country in the world to provide decent health care for its people.  The

reason that they have difficulty doing that is explained on the following

page.

Starfield, B. (2000, July 26). Is US health really the best in the world?

Journal of the American Medical Association, 284(4), 483-485.



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