PD Rants and Musings

Friday, August 05, 2005

Medical errors

As I have said to people I know, my "5% Rule" says that, if 95% of the time a given set of symptoms can be attributed to a specific diagnosis, then woe to the poor patient in the 5%, since few physicians or health systems have the financial wherewithal, diligence or other incentive to determine the accurate diagnosis.

And, as has also been published before... more people die as a result of medical errors than other common causes of death.

Is there any better reason than the above to argue that healthcare consumers have a paramount obligation to ask questions, challenge assumptions and demand satisfaction in healthcare?