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Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

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Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#141

Post by smcl »

zeroth32 wrote: post #65
bloak wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the main purposes of recording cause of death is so that we know what to concentrate on for improving public health. For example, perhaps we could make old people's bones less brittle by adding vitamins to bread, or do something to persuade more of them to eat something other than just bread and jam, or perhaps we could stop them getting infected with pneumonia in hospitals, or somehow make pneumonia more surv…

Fixing old people is incredibly ambitious. How about we concentrate on low hanging fruit first? Young person with broken hand, knife stabbing, or dog bite comes into hospital, gets treated, leaves 2 hours latter. Nobody gets bankrupt, has to sell kidney, nobody waits 20 hours.... > getting infected with pneumonia And old age is an infection as well, right? ...

This is a little bit naive, I don't think you've really thought a great deal about how healthcare works. You're talking about a basic triaging system in ER (or A&E or whatever it's called in your locale) - this is something that every hospital does already.

It's kind of obvious you're young (20-something or at the very most early 30s), but just remember you're going to be "infected" by old age one day. You'll likely feel a little bit different about the whole old people are just ill and die attitude then. And that's not even to mention the elderly who are alive today who we are responsible for and should feel compassion for. A bit of empathy goes a long way :)

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#142

Post by rscho »

pnutjam wrote: post #136
rscho wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am also MD and anesthesiologist. This is partly true. The true part is because anesthesiologists are more able to appreciate medical abilities than the layman is. The false part is that people, including colleagues, tend to judge on what they see and hear. Oftentimes, you won't work every day with the same surgeon, so you actually have no idea regarding success/failure statistics. That's why I said you're what people…

I believe "wary" is the work you're looking for. This means the are guarded and maybe suspicious. Weary means tired.

Yes thanks, autocorrect :-)

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#143

Post by starkd »

giantg2 wrote: post #67

“Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” That's because they're hard to standardize. What qualifies as a medical error? It's easy to go back after the fact and analyze a case where someone has a poor outcome and say 'we should have done this another way'. That doesn't mean there was any indicatio…

The article stresses that all medical errors are not necessarily due to bad doctors. It's also bad coordination between different services, miscommunication, etc. Dr. Makary points out various process problems that are not necessarily the fault of any individual doctor.

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#144

Post by nradov »

willcipriano wrote: post #122
q1w2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling doctors, collectively, the "American medical cartel" isn't helpful language. It's just more polarizing politics that breaks down constructive dialogue.

Don't behave like a cartel if you don't want to be called one. From limiting residency slots, making it nearly impossible to hire foreign doctors and lobbying for safe medications that are sold over the counter in the rest of the world to be sold as prescription only in the US. Just to name a few, the AMA has served it's members well to the detriment of anyone buying healthcare in the United States. That to me is a c…

Please stop spreading misinformation. The AMA doesn't limit residency slots. They have been actively lobbying Congress to increase residency slots, and have even put their own money into it.

https://www.ama-assn.org/education/accelerating-change-medic...

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#145

Post by nradov »

freeone3000 wrote: post #14
bambax wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> insurance companies don't want to work with them I'm not familiar with the peculiarities of the US healthcare system, but why wouldn't insurance companies work with off-brand medications? If it costs less it's good for them, no?

Medical insurer's profits are limited to a percentage of their gross income, so, more expensive medications and procedures are preferred to less expensive ones in order to preserve overall income.

While the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) did introduce a minimum medical loss ratio, insurers still have a strong incentive to hold down costs by encouraging use of cheaper generic medication so that they can offer lower prices to plan purchasers. Most medical insurance is purchased by employers and other group buyers, and they look closely at costs. In most cases, physicians have to obtain specific approval in order for more expensive medications to be covered.

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#146

Post by dontbenebby »

Makes sense, everyone I met in college who said they were pre-med would immediately suffer narcissistic injury and refuse to be professional in any future context when I'd remind them Pitt has no pre-med program then go back to doing whatever I want on the wifi.

(I also met a few folks who took what they needed to do well on the MCAT then also did some practical courses on information science or focused on art so they could have something to do that would let them turn off their brain after work other than binge reality tv, and most of them are doing OK.)

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#147

Post by permo-w »

dontbenebby wrote: post #146

Makes sense, everyone I met in college who said they were pre-med would immediately suffer narcissistic injury and refuse to be professional in any future context when I'd remind them Pitt has no pre-med program then go back to doing whatever I want on the wifi. (I also met a few folks who took what they needed to do well on the MCAT then also did some practical courses on information science or focused on art so the…

what does this mean

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#148

Post by [deleted] »

giantg2 wrote: post #67

“Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” That's because they're hard to standardize. What qualifies as a medical error? It's easy to go back after the fact and analyze a case where someone has a poor outcome and say 'we should have done this another way'. That doesn't mean there was any indicatio…

[deleted]

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#149

Post by xtracto »

georgia_peach wrote: post #109

I believe it. In my 40+ years of dealing with the medical profession, Dr. Google, Dr. Wikipedia, & Dr. Pubmed have wiped the floor with them, time after time. If you get sick, do the research. I can almost guarantee that it will pay off. And these days, medical research is excellent--if only by volume. I know people here like their canned responses--" small n! ", " in mice !", " correlation != causation "--but when y…

People that have lived with a chronic disease have seen this first hand. I had specialist Doctors five up on me in frustration because they just dont know what's wrong with me. I've been to several doctors in 3 different countries during 20 years. You really comprehend that doctors are just humans, not too different from say, an IT professional trying to troubleshoot a failing PC.

Re: Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S. (2016)

#150

Post by willcipriano »

jac241 wrote: post #139
danachow wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anytime someone mentions the AMA I just have to ignore them completely. It’s not that the AMA hasn’t done some shady shit throughout the years (especially the 60s), it’s just that in 2022 they are so close to irrelevant that painting them as a boogieman merely shows that your name information is about 50 years out of date. The “medical cartel” as you call it is more and more getting shaped by a number or powerful int…

Amen. The American Hospital Association wields way more power now. Mergers between hospital systems have led to the large hospital systems being among the largest employers in many states, which means that senators and representatives are going to listen to what they want. Certainly more than they do to the AMA, which might only represent like 25% of doctors anymore.

Even if true how does that make medicine less of a cartel?
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