Editorial Board
Make Hospitals Come Clean About Errors
The government is encouraging hospitals to admit it when they screw up. But encouragement isn't enough.
Time for change.
Photograph: Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesMedical errors, by one count, are the third-leading cause of death for Americans. Surgery mistakes, misuse of drugs or equipment, delays in treatment and the like kill at least 100,000 a year, possibly as many as half a million.
No one knows the exact number, and that points up an underlying problem: Hospitals almost universally resist confessing when a medical error hurts or kills a patient, because admitting fault can expose them to lawsuits. Getting them to overcome this reluctance is essential -- to let patients and their families know the truth, and to ensure that hospitals become safer by learning from their mistakes.