Deaths from hospital errors double 1999 estimates.

Preventable hospital errors cause 195,000 U.S. deaths a year, twice as many as previously believed, according to a recent nationwide study of Medicare data. The new findings put hospital errors in third place among the leading causes of death in the United States, following heart disease and cancer. (Health Grades, Inc., Patient Safety in American Hospitals (2004) .)

"The equivalent of 390 jumbo jets full of people are dying each year due to preventable, in-hospital medical errors, making this one of the leading killers in the United States," said Samantha Collier; vice president of medical affairs at Health Grades, which conducted the study. The results also show that "there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years," she said.

A 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that medical errors cause up to 98,000 deaths a year. That figure was extrapolated from data collected in three states during one year. (Linda T. Kohn et al., Institute of Medicine, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (1999).)

Health Grades--a Denver-based company that rates health-care quality--claims its study is more up-to-date and comprehensive because its researchers looked at Medicare patient records from all 50 states and the District of Columbia over three years.

The American Medical Association (AMA) discounted the Health Grades study, calling it "flawed" and unreliable because it was not subjected to strenuous peer review.

"The AMA strongly supports research that improves patient safety, but a recent report from the for-profit company Health Grades was not peer-reviewed, and the authors themselves recognize the flaws in their methodology, which relies on claims data that have inherent limitations, including not being able to explain complex situations or make cause-and-effect connections," said Donald Palmisano, AMA immediate past president.

The methodology the Health Grades researchers used was applied in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) last year that confirmed the IOM study's conclusions. (Chunliu Zhan & ...