The seminal and oft-cited estimate offered more than 20 years ago by the national Institute of Medicine concerning the number of people who die annually in American hospitals owing to medical mistakes was for some time viewed as unrealistic.The IOM report entitled "To...
Month: September 2013
Doctors’ failure to diagnose breast cancer may cost woman’s life
When you go to a doctor about a medical concern, you expect to be told the truth, not given a comforting half-truth. In the case of a woman now facing the probability of premature death, however, that was apparently the mistake by her radiologist and gynecologist.When...
House committee investigates jump in VA medical malpractice cases
Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs paid out $91.7 million in medical malpractice claims -- the most in at least 12 years, according to the Government Accountability Office. That represented more than 1,500 malpractice claims against VA providers, which...
Study: accuracy lacking in reporting of robotic surgery errors
"We still don't really know what the true answer is," says Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine surgical professor Martin A. Makary.That is unfortunate, given that the question pertains to surgical error and the number of mistakes that are made when surgeons...