Editorial: State tries to reduce deadly medical errors

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2001 | 8:36 a.m.

The National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine estimates that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die every year from medical errors. Two years ago the Institute of Medicine recommended that Congress create national safety goals and chart the progress in achieving them, but a far-reaching medical safety program isn't in place yet.

The state of Nevada is taking a stab at the issue of medical mistakes, though, as an interim committee of the Legislature investigates whether Nevada should have its own reporting system. This won't be an easy matter to fix: The costs of maintaining a database and the concerns that physicians have regarding their legal liability for reporting their own mistakes are just two of the many hurdles that will be difficult to overcome. But this is a worthy endeavor by the state to try to decrease the number of needless deaths caused by medical errors.

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