July is Medical Malpractice Awareness Month

/by

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PATIENTS INSPECTION…”THE SURGEONS SCORECARD”

Today, they are making public the complication rates of nearly 17,000 surgeons nationwide.

The issue of patient safety has been at the forefront of American health care since 1999, when the Institute of Medicine released “To Err Is Human,” a landmark report on the startling frequency of medical errors.

But since then, medical errors haven’t abated — recent studies estimate that at least 200,000 patients a year die in hospitals from preventable errors and complications related to their care, which would make patient harm the nation’s third-leading cause of death.

“It’s long overdue,” said Dr. Charles Mick, former president of the North American Spine Society, who reviewed ProPublica’s findings. “Hopefully, it will be a step toward a culture where transparency and open discussion of mistakes, complications and errors will be the norm and not something that’s hidden.”
Click here to see THE SURGEON’S SCORECARD

Jared Green
Latest posts by Jared Green (see all)