University study identifies problems with IOM report.
The Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report on medical errors is faulty because it does not include a control group and all the patients studied were 'very sick' according to researchers at Indiana University. "What the figures suggest is that people don't die [without an adverse event]," says Clement J. McDonald, MD, director of the Regenstrief Institute and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. McDonald is referring to the study released by the IOM of the National Academies in November that states 'preventable adverse events are a leading cause of death' and 'at least 44,000 and perhaps as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors.
D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000401:mortality*; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D012107:Research Design; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology