A 2016 Johns Hopkins study found more than 250,000 people in the United States die every year from medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Another study reported higher figures and estimated numbers of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients at more than 400,000 per year.
This actual number could be larger still. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2012 that 86 percent of all hospital bedside mistakes are not reported because they were events “that staff did not perceive as reportable (61 percent) or as events that staff commonly report but did not report in this case (25 percent).”…