Shocking Fact: Preventable Medical Mistakes Kill Over a Quarter Million People Every Year | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

What Happened:

Medical errors kill more than a quarter million people every year in the United States and injure millions more. According to Dr. Peter Pronovost, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, if you add up all of the preventable medical mistakes, then “you probably the third leading cause of death” in the country.

If the statistics weren’t bad enough, some of the most common mistakes are pretty blatant and may cause you to ask, “What were they thinking?” For example, CNN recently published an article listing the 10 most common medical mistakes and they include treating the wrong patient, medical devices left inside your body, and operating on the wrong body part.  

The Virginia Injury Lawyer’s Perspective:

It’s shocking and frustrating to know that so many innocent lives are lost, or irrevocably altered due to serious injury, because of a preventable medical error. We need major reform in this area. Far too many people believe that so-called “tort reform” is the best way to curve skyrocketing health care costs. However, as the CNN article indicates, a big driver of health care costs, and lives lost, is the negligent conduct of medical professionals.

Potentially Helpful Info:

Our firm published an article detailing an innovative way on how to cut down on preventable medical mistakes. Read it here.

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