BY KAREN WOLK FEINSTEIN AND MARTIN J. HATLIE — The Hill 01/09/22

The United States spends more on health care than any country in the world, but it has made almost no progress in reducing medical error harm. Best estimates indicate 210,000 – 400,000 patients continue to die each year from preventable harm in U.S. hospitals alone, a death toll that positions medical error as the third largest cause of death. Unsafe care in the form of poor infection control or lack of personal protective equipment has also fueled preventable death during the pandemic, including patient and staff losses. Some were by disease and others by an increase in errors.

Twenty years ago, the Institute of Medicine identified medical error as a national priority. Focused initiatives during the Obama administration saved lives, reduced injuries and saved more money than they cost. Yet progress stalled. Now we hear little in the public sphere about this crisis in safety, even during a pandemic. One plane crash or one pedestrian killed by an autonomous vehicle elicits widespread alarm, sympathy and rapid responses. However, the huge number of victims who have died from avoidable medical error and preventable pandemic deaths over the last year arouse far fewer demands for action. Is the problem too vast to comprehend? Have the anonymity and sheer volume of fatalities produced a confounding fatalism? 

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