Editing Medical error (section)

== Impact ==
One extrapolation suggests that 180,000 people die each year partly as a result of [[iatrogenic]] injury.<ref name="pmid7503827">{{cite journal |author=Leape LL |year=1994 |title=Error in medicine |journal=JAMA |volume=272 |issue=23 |pages=1851–7 |doi=10.1001/jama.272.23.1851 |pmid=7503827}}</ref> The World Health Organization registered 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths in 2012. It estimated that the number of cases could increase by 70% through 2032. As the number of cancer patients receiving treatment increases, hospitals around the world are seeking ways to improve patient safety, to emphasize traceability and raise efficiency in their cancer treatment processes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cancer |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ |access-date=2017-03-02 |website=World Health Organization |language=en-GB |archive-date=December 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229092321/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Children are often more vulnerable to a negative outcome when a medication error occurs as they have age-related differences in how their bodies absorb, metabolize, and excrete pharmaceutical agents.<ref name=":2" />

=== UK ===
In the UK, an estimated 850,000 medical errors occur each year, costing over £2 billion (estimated in the year 2000).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Donaldson |first=L |year=2000 |title=An organisation with a memory: Report of an expert group on learning from adverse events in the NHS |url=https://psnet.ahrq.gov/issue/organisation-memory-report-expert-group-learning-adverse-events-nhs-chaired-chief-medical |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Patient Safety Network, UK |archive-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717152314/https://psnet.ahrq.gov/issue/organisation-memory-report-expert-group-learning-adverse-events-nhs-chaired-chief-medical |url-status=live }}</ref> The accuracy of this estimate is not clear. Criticism has included the statistical handling of [[Observational error|measurement errors]] in the report,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hayward |first1=Rodney A. |last2=Heisler |first2=Michele |last3=Adams |first3=John |last4=Dudley |first4=R. Adams |last5=Hofer |first5=Timothy P. |title=Overestimating Outcome Rates: Statistical Estimation When Reliability Is Suboptimal |journal=Health Services Research |date=August 2007 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=1718–1738 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00661.x |pmid=17610445 |pmc=1955272 }}</ref> and significant subjectivity in determining which deaths were "avoidable" or due to medical error, and an erroneous assumption that 100% of patients would have survived if optimal care had been provided.<ref name="Hayward & Hofer">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hayward R, Hofer T |year=2001 |title=Estimating hospital deaths due to medical errors: preventability is in the eye of the reviewer |journal=JAMA |volume=286 |issue=4 |pages=415–20 |doi=10.1001/jama.286.4.415 |pmid=11466119}}</ref>

A 2006 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. In 2000 alone, the extra medical costs incurred by preventable drug-related injuries approximated $887 million{{mdash}}and the study looked only at injuries sustained by Medicare recipients, a subset of clinic visitors. None of these figures take into account lost wages and productivity or other costs.<ref>{{cite web |year=2006 |url=http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11623 |title=Medication Errors Injure 1.5 Million People and Cost Billions of Dollars Annually |publisher=The National Academy of Science |access-date=February 1, 2011 |archive-date=November 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126062253/http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11623 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== US ===
According to a 2002 [[Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality]] report, about 7,000 people were estimated to die each year from medication errors – about 16 percent more deaths than the number attributable to work-related injuries (6,000 deaths).{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}  One in five Americans (22%) report that they or a family member have experienced a medical error of some kind.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.commonwealthfund.org/about-us/annual-reports/2002-annual-report|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416064632/http://www.commonwealthfund.org/about-us/annual-reports/2002-annual-report|url-status=dead|title=2002 Annual Report|archivedate=April 16, 2018}}</ref> A 2000 [[Institute of Medicine]] report estimated that medical errors result in between 44,000 and 98,000 preventable deaths and 1,000,000 excess injuries each year in U.S. hospitals.<ref name="toerr" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Charatan |first1=Fred |date=4 March 2000 |title=Clinton acts to reduce medical mistakes |journal=BMJ |volume=320 |issue=7235 |pages=597 |doi=10.1136/bmj.320.7235.597 |pmc=1117638 |pmid=10698861}}</ref><ref name="Epid">{{cite journal |vauthors=Weingart SN, Wilson RM, Gibberd RW, Harrison B |date=March 2000 |title=Epidemiology of medical error |journal=BMJ |volume=320 |issue=7237 |pages=774–7 |doi=10.1136/bmj.320.7237.774 |pmc=1117772 |pmid=10720365}}</ref> A 2001 study in the ''[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]'' of seven [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Department of Veterans Affairs]] medical centers estimated that for roughly every 10,000 patients admitted to the select hospitals, one patient died who would have lived for three months or more in good cognitive health had "optimal" care been provided.<ref name="Hayward & Hofer" /> A 2001 study estimated that 1% of hospital admissions result in an adverse event due to [[negligence]].<ref name="pmid1987460">{{cite journal |doi=10.1056/NEJM199102073240604 |vauthors=Brennan T, Leape L, Laird N, Hebert L, Localio A, Lawthers A, Newhouse J, Weiler P, Hiatt H |title=Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients. Results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study I |journal=N Engl J Med |volume=324 |issue=6 |pages=370–6 |year=1991 |pmid=1987460 |s2cid=3101439 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Identification or errors may be a challenge in these studies, and mistakes may be more common than reported as these studies identify only mistakes that led to measurable adverse events occurring soon after the errors. Independent review of  doctors' treatment plans suggests that decision-making could be improved in 14% of admissions; many of the benefits would have delayed manifestations.<ref name="pmid15109337">{{cite journal |vauthors=Lucas B, Evans A, Reilly B, Khodakov Y, Perumal K, Rohr L, Akamah J, Alausa T, Smith C, Smith J |title=The Impact of Evidence on Physicians' Inpatient Treatment Decisions |journal=J Gen Intern Med |volume=19 |issue=5 Pt 1 |pages=402–9 |year=2004 | doi = 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30306.x | pmid=15109337 |pmc=1492243}}</ref> Even this number may be an underestimate. One study suggests that adults in the United States receive only 55% of recommended care.<ref name="pmid12826639">{{cite journal |vauthors=McGlynn EA, Asch SM, Adams J, Keesey J, Hicks J, DeCristofaro A, Kerr EA | year = 2003 | title = The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States | journal = N Engl J Med | volume = 348 | issue = 26| pages = 2635–45 | doi = 10.1056/NEJMsa022615 | pmid = 12826639 | doi-access = free }}</ref> At the same time, a second study found that 30% of care in the United States may be unnecessary.<ref name="pmid14573739">{{cite journal | pmid = 14573739 | doi=10.1056/NEJMe038149 | volume=349 | issue=17 | journal = New England Journal of Medicine |date=October 2003 | title = Medical Care — Is More Always Better?  | pages=1665–7 |vauthors=Fisher ES}}</ref> For example, if a doctor fails to order a mammogram that is past due, this mistake will not show up in the first type of study.<ref name="pmid1987460" /> In addition, because no adverse event occurred during the short follow-up of the study, the mistake also would not show up in the second type of study<ref name="pmid15109337" /> because only the principal treatment plans were critiqued. However, the mistake would be recorded in the third type of study. If a doctor recommends an unnecessary treatment or test, it may not show in any of these types of studies.

Cause of death on United States death certificates, statistically compiled by the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC), are coded in the [[International Classification of Disease]] (ICD), which does not include codes for human and system factors.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Makary |first1=Martin A |last2=Daniel |first2=Michael |title=Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US |journal=BMJ |volume=353 |date=3 May 2016 |pages=i2139 |doi=10.1136/bmj.i2139 |pmid=27143499 |s2cid=206910205 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Moriyama|first1=IM|last2=Loy|first2=RM|last3=Robb-Smith|first3=AHT|editor1-last=Rosenberg|editor1-first=HM|editor2-last=Hoyert|editor2-first=DL|title=History of the Statistical Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death|date=2011|publisher=U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics|location=Hyattsville, MD|isbn=978-0-8406-0644-0|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/classification_diseases2011.pdf|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=May 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505192204/http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/classification_diseases2011.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>