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Death by Medicine -2 http://www.nutritioninstituteofamerica.org/
ABSTRACT TABLES AND FIGURES
(see Section on Statistical Tables and Figures, below, for exposition) ANNUAL PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC
COST OF MEDICAL INTERVENTION
We could have an even higher death rate by using
Dr. Lucien Leape’s 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million. 14 Multiplied
by the fatality rate of 14% (that Leape used in 1994)16 we arrive
at an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors
combined. If we put this number in place of Lazorou’s 106,000 drug errors and
the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 98,000 medical errors (which may have a
drug error overlap with Lazorou¹s study), we could add another 216,000 deaths
making a total of 999,936 deaths annually.
ANNUAL UNNECESSARY MEDICAL
EVENTS STATISTICS
The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is
very important in our analysis. Any medical procedure that is invasive and
not necessary must be considered as part of the larger iatrogenic picture.
Unfortunately, cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on unnecessary
events represent people (“patients”) who are thrust into a dangerous
healthcare system. They are helpless victims. Each one of these 16.4 million
lives is being affected in a way that could have a fatal consequence. Simply
entering a hospital could result in the following: 1.
In 16.4 million people, 2.1% chance of a serious adverse
drug reaction,1 (186,000) 2.
In 16.4 million people, 5-6% chance of acquiring a
nosocomial infection,9 (489,500) 3.
In16.4 million people, 4-36% chance of having an iatrogenic
injury in hospital (medical error and adverse drug reactions),16 (1.78
million) 4.
In 16.4 million people, 17% chance of a procedure error,40
(1.3 million) All the statistics above represent a one-year
time span. Imagine the numbers over a ten-year period. Working with the most
conservative figures from our statistics we project the following 10-year
death rates. TEN-YEAR DEATH RATES FOR
MEDICAL INTERVENTION
Our projected statistic of 7.8 million iatrogenic deaths is
more than all the casualties from wars that America has fought in its entire
history. Our projected figures for unnecessary medical events
occurring over a 10-year period are also dramatic. TEN-YEAR STATISTICS FOR
UNNECESSARY INTERVENTION
These projected figures show that a total of 164 million
people, approximately 56% of the population of the United States, have been
treated unnecessarily by the medical industry – in other words, nearly 50,000
people per day. We have added, cumulatively, figures from 13 references of
annual iatrogenic deaths. However, there is invariably some degree of overlap
and double counting that can occur in gathering non-finite statistics. Death
numbers don’t come with names and birth dates to prevent duplication On the
other hand, there are many missing statistics. As we will show, only about 5
to 20% of iatrogenic incidents are even recorded. (16,24,25,33,34) And,
our outpatient iatrogenic statistics (112) only include
drug-related events and not surgical cases, diagnostic errors, or therapeutic
mishaps. We have also been conservative in our inclusion of
statistics that were not reported in peer review journals or by government
institutions. For example, on July 23, 2002, The Chicago Tribune analyzed
records from patient databases, court cases, 5,810 hospitals, as well as 75
federal and state agencies and found 103,000 cases of death due to hospital
infections, 75% of which were preventable.(152) We do not include
this figure but report the lower Weinstein figure of 88,000. (9)
Another figure that we withheld, for lack of proper peer review was The
National Committee for Quality Assurance, September 2003 report which found
that at least 57,000 people die annually from lack of proper care for commons
diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease. (153) Overlapping of statistics in Death by Medicine may occur
with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (6) paper that designates
"medical error" as including drugs, surgery, and unnecessary
procedures. Since we have also included other statistics on adverse drug
reactions, surgery and, unnecessary procedures, perhaps a much as 50% of the
IOM number could be redundant. However, even taking away half the 98,000 IOM
number still leaves us with iatrogenic events as the number one killer at
738,000 annual deaths. Even greater numbers of iatrogenic deaths will eventually
come to light when all facets of health care delivery are measured. Most
iatrogenic statistics are derived from hospital-based studies. However,
health care is no longer typically relegated to hospitals. Today, health care
is shared by hospitals, outpatient clinics, transitional care, long-term
care, rehabilitative care, home care, and private practitioners offices. In
the current climate of reducing health-care costs, the number of hospitals
and the length of patient stays are being slashed. These measures will
increase the number of patients shunted into outpatient, home care, and long-term
care and the iatrogenic morbidity and mortality will also increase. ©
2003 Gary Null & Associates, Inc. (GNA) |