Date: Mon, 26 Dec 1994 14:51:54 -0800 (PST)
From: “Edgar A. Suter” <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

While proofing “Violence in America – Effective Solutions” for
publication in the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, I came
upon a new estimate of the number of Americans killed annually by
doctors’ errors. The estimate was published in the December 21, 1994
issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association so is
particularly quotable.

An excerpt from “Violence in America…” contains the new estimate:

The 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study quantified non-psychiatric
inpatient deaths from physician negligence (excluding outpatient, extended
care, and inpatient psychiatric deaths) in New York State.[1] “If these
rates are typical of the United States, then 180,000 people die each year
partly as a result of iatrogenic injury, the equivalent of three jumbo-jet
crashes every two days.”[2] – almost five times the number of Americans
killed with guns.

[1] Harvard Medical Practice Study. “Harvard Medical Practice Study.”
Report to the State of New York. Cambridge MA: Harvard Medical School.
1990.

[2] Leape LL. “Error in Medicine.” JAMA. 1994; 272(23): 1851-57.

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* Edgar A. Suter, MD [email protected] *
* Chair, DIRPP Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy *
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