Re: Doctors 3rd leading cause of death...

[Guest guest]

Hello, everyone,

I didn't copy all this article, but it has some interesting statistics in it

about doctors. You can find the article at:

http://www.mercola.com/2000/jul/30/doctors_death.htm

Susie

___________________________

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000

Deaths Every Year

This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is the

best article I have ever seen written in the published literature documenting

the tragedy of the traditional medical paradigm.

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free newsletter.

This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which hit

the papers in December of last year, but the data was hard to reference as it

was not in peer-reviewed journal. Now it is published in JAMA which is the

most widely circulated medical periodical in the world.

The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the s Hopkins School of Hygiene

and Public Health and she desribes how the US health care system may

contribute to poor health.

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:

12,000 -----unnecessary surgery 8

7,000 -----medication errors in hospitals 9

20,000 ----other errors in hospitals 10

80,000 ----infections in hospitals 10

106,000 ---non-error, negative effects of drugs 2

These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!

What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a

patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a

complication of treatment.

Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:

First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.

Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include negative

effects that are associated with disability or discomfort.

Third, the estimates of death due to error are lower than those in the IOM

report.1

If the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to iatrogenic causes would

range from 230,000 to 284,000. In any case, 225,000 deaths per year

constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States, after

deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even if these figures are

overestimated, there is a wide margin between these numbers of deaths and the

next leading cause of death (cerebrovascular disease).

Another analysis 11 concluded that between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients

experience negative effects in outpatient settings,with:

116 million extra physician visits

77 million extra prescriptions

17 million emergency department visits

8 million hospitalizations

3 million long-term admissions

199,000 additional deaths

$77 billion in extra costs

The high cost of the health care system is considered to be a deficit, but

seems to be tolerated under the assumption that better health results from

more expensive care.

However, evidence from a few studies indicates that as many as 20% to 30% of

patients receive inappropriate care.

An estimated 44,000 to 98,000 among them die each year as a result of medical

errors.2

This might be tolerated if it resulted in better health, but does it? Of 13

countries in a recent comparison,3,4 the United States ranks an average of

12th (second from the bottom) for 16 available health indicators. More

specifically, the ranking of the US on several indicators was:

13th (last) for low-birth-weight percentages

13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall 14

11th for postneonatal mortality

13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes)

11th for life expectancy at 1 year for females, 12th for males

10th for life expectancy at 15 years for females, 12th for males

10th for life expectancy at 40 years for females, 9th for males

7th for life expectancy at 65 years for females, 7th for males

3rd for life expectancy at 80 years for females, 3rd for males

10th for age-adjusted mortality

The poor performance of the US was recently confirmed by a World Health

Organization study, which used different data and ranked the United States as

15th among 25 industrialized countries.

There is a perception that the American public " behaves badly " by smoking,

drinking, and perpetrating violence. " However the data does not support this

assertion