The 3 Forces: The Perfect Storm Making Medical Errors the 3rd Leading Cause of Death

I previously posted twice on the scientific review paper led by Hopkins' researcher Martin Makary, MD, that concluded medical errors are the nation's third leading cause of death. The raw estimate of 251,000 deaths per year is mind-numbing. What is even more disturbing is that the morbidity and mortality seems to be intractable. The number is not heading south, despite the 100,000 Lives Campaign from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Medicine's initiative to just-say-no to over-performance of services, Choosing Wisely: Things Providers Should Question has also not turned the tide. The estimate is up from the seminal work in 2000 from Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH that put the medical industry's death rate at 225,000 per year. Since the number doesn't seem to be moving, reason suggests that powerful forces are holding the stasis. What are the barriers, then? My reflections led to a column in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine that is summarized here. Might it be the case that these 3 forces, together, will always create such havoc? The production focus of the medical industry Both CFOs of medical delivery organizations and the 80/20 rule of the insurers perversely incentivize doing more - and working faster. It's why the best players in regular medicine are promoting a revolution toward the Triple Aim and a "value-based" orientation. The present industry errs on the side of doing more in tertiary care while also promoting the fewest minutes pos...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news