A widely publicized report saying that as many as 98,000 people
die each year in the United States from medical errors is conservative,
and the number is probably much larger than that. The estimate by
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is low because it looked only at
deaths of patients at hospitals. The Institute is a private, nonprofit
organization that provides health policy advice under a congressional
charter to the National Academy of Sciences.
Janet M. Corrigan is the IOM's director of health care services.
The Institute is a private, nonprofit organization that provides
health policy advice under a congressional charter to the National
Academy of Sciences. She told reporters at a Capitol Hill briefing
May 8 that the study did not look at medical-error deaths at nursing
homes, emergency rooms or in doctors' offices. The mortality estimates
are low also because most of the information was based on medical
record reviews. Medical errors are a problem that has been hidden
from the public for far to long.