Medical Errors: Medical Errors and Near Misses
CDC statistics for the United States in 2001 show that only five other causes led to more deaths than medical errors:
- Heart disease-700,000
- Cancer-554,000
- Stroke-164,000
- Chronic lower respiratory disease-123,000
- Accidents-102,000
The
IOM report on medical errors concurs and comments that even with conservative estimates, medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
