Editing Medical error (section)

=== 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>