HOW SAFE IS THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?

The Institute of Medicine published a report in the 1990's that estimated nearly 100,000 hospitalized people die each year from preventable errors. More than 250,000 deaths a year were caused by mistakes by the American health care system according to a study released earlier this year. The study was done by John Hopkins University. It analyzed data over an eight year period. After heart disease and cancer, medical errors would be the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. In a report released in late July, federal government investigators discovered nearly 1 in 3 patients in America's rehabilitation facilities suffered care they received. This ranged from getting the wrong medication to picking up an infection or bedsores.