Hospitals eighth leading cause of death in U.S.

Kristin Morgan STO02013@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Diseases kill.

In fact, they kill over 13 million people throughout the world and over 3,000 people in Idaho alone.

But do hospitals kill?

A 1999 Institute of Medicine report an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur annually from medical errors. Based on these numbers as a low estimate, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality ranks medical errors as the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.

Medical errors are higher on the list than deaths caused by motor-vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297) or AIDS (16,516).

The medical industry uses the term nosocomial infection to mean hospital-caused infections. These illnesses primarily occur to young children and the elderly, who carry weaker immune systems than most. They can, and do, attack anyone though. They are transmitted through direct contact with the hospital staff, inadequately sterilized instruments, aerosol droplets from other patients and even the food and water provided at the hospital.

Wrong procedures in hospitals are also a cause of medical errors.

When wrong procedures and tests, or the failure to do ordered tests occurs, further ailment is caused to the patient.

The BYU-Idaho Health Center says it has never seen a nosocomial infection caused by their facility. Several Health Center employees agreed that “our facility is so clean; we try to rid it of any bacteria every day.”

The lack of nosocomial infections at the Health Center may be because it is a smaller facility and only performs minor surgeries. Larger hospitals have a higher occurrence of medical errors.

The National Patient Safety Foundation says “one in five Americans report that they or a family member have experienced a medical error of some kind. Nationally, this translates into an estimated 22.8 million people with at least one family member who experienced a mistake in a doctor’s office or hospital.”

To raise awareness of medical errors and nosocomial infections, the National Patient Safety Foundation started a program titled Stand Up for Patient Safety.

Currently, the Health Center on campus is not a member of the Stand Up for Patient Safety program.