Emergency medicine: a practice prone to error?

Emergency Medicine: A practice prone to error? CJEM 2001 Oct;3(4): 271-276. This classic article by Drs. Croskerry and Sinclair, pioneers in the study of emergency medicine error, is just as relevant now as it was when it was written 15 years ago. Some excerpts: On the unknown scale of the problem of errors: “The first…

Is medical error the third leading cause of death in the US?

Hot off the press from the British Medical Journal, researchers have calculated that medical error kills 251,000 Americans a year. This ranks thirds behind heart disease and cancer, and ahead of COPD, suicide, motor vehicle accidents and firearms. As they explain, “Medical error has been defined as an unintended act (either of omission or commission)…