Number of Avoidable Errors Made by Doctors on the Rise

Researchers at John Hopkins University studying national malpractice claims in recent years found that the number of avoidable errors made by surgeons and doctors continue to rise at an alarming rate.The study, published in the journal Surgery, revealed that more than 80,000 of such “never events” occurred between 1990 and 2010 with researchers adding that around 39 incidents of doctors leaving a foreign object inside the body of a patient during surgery occurs every week while a wrong procedure is performed 20 times a week. “There are mistakes in health care that are not preventable. Infection rates will likely never get down to zero even if everyone does everything right, for example. But the events we've estimated are totally preventable. This study highlights that we are nowhere near where we should be and there's a lot of work to be done”, lead researcher Marty Makary said. 
Source:John Hopkins University