Exhibit 170

Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US

Exhibit 170 · Journal analysis

Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US

Makary and Daniel's BMJ paper estimates 251,454 deaths a year from medical error in US hospitals, which Shojania and Dixon-Woods report was derived by averaging four estimates. The paper states the figure as 9.5 percent of US deaths, derived by applying the pooled rates of four studies (data from 2000–2008) to 35,416,020 US hospitalizations in 2013. It argues that error would rank third among causes of death and that death certificates, coded to the International Classification of Diseases, cannot capture it.

Source: Makary and Daniel, BMJ 353:i2139
Date: 3 May 2016
Grade: Peer-reviewed
Document: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i2139
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit
Note: Known through STAT and AJMC coverage and the Shojania and Dixon-Woods critique.

Cited by

Finding MED-9.1: Peer-reviewed Published estimates of US deaths caused by medical care range from about 22,000 to about 251,000 a year. The range comes from what each study counts.
Finding MED-9.4: Open question No direct, contemporary study measures how many US hospital deaths are preventable. Every national figure is an extrapolation from small, old or foreign samples.