Health Care Malpractice & Other Myths

According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), over 225,000 people die each year due to medical malpractice and nearly half of these are from emergency room errors. Medical malpractice has become the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. Medical Malpratice is no myth The JAMA article also broke down the following medical malpractice statistics: * 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery * 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals * 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals * 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals * 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medication A 2006 follow-up to the 1999 Institute of Medicine study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the study, 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics. The report stated that these are likely to be conservative estimates. 400,000 Medication Malpractice Injuries 225,000 Errors Related to Malpractice Deaths 625,000 Total Malpractice Cases in Hospitals 40,000,000 Total Hospital Admissions 0.0156 98.44% Efficiency Rate OTHER MYTHS Administration Costs 400 bil, 30% to 50% BIR related Medical Equipment Costs 53,000,000,000Total Medical Equipment Revenue 23,850,000,00045% surgical supplies600 room and board 21,200,000,00040% equiptment I took on the conventional wisdom that an aging population is driving U.S. hospital bills higher. The truth is that a combination of spending on new construction and hi-tech equipment pushed the nations hospital bill to $648.2 billion in 2006 —up 7 percent from 2005. The uptick was part of a trend: since 2000, outlays for hospital care have climbed anywhere from 5.2 percent (2000) to 8 percent (2003) each and every year. As a result, by 2006, spending on hospitals represented nearly one-third of the $2.1 trillion we shelled out for health care that year, stated Maggie Mahar in the blog Health Beat. Actionable steps Insurance bubble - Mortgage Crisis Prescription Drugs - we have what we have and we have no more. quite financing this. Coca-Cola sells product for 30 cents AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670946 Money we dont have Robbing individuals Grandma Myth Not sure if they want to kill grandmom with death panels but is sure seems they want to bleed her dry The biggest year of the boom was 1957, when 4.3 million boomers were born. Why it took over 10 years for so many post-World War II families to get going is a matter of speculation. For the 5-year period between 1956 and 1960, inclusive, 21.2 million boomers were born, nearly 1 1/2 times the number born between 1941 and 1945, and the largest for any 5-year period in the 20th century. These boomers reach 65+ in 2017-2023 SOURCES http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670946 http://medicalmalpracticelawblog.com/2008/10/31/statistics-on-medical-malpractice-lawsuits/ http://www.resource4medicalmalpractice.com/topics/medicalmalpracticefacts.html http://www.medical-malpractice-attorney-source.com/medical_malpractice/statistics.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform http://www.answers.com/topic/medical-malpractice http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm