The wide-ranging numbers of deaths attributable to medical errors make it difficult to prove or disprove the validity of the meme's claim with its smiling physicians holding firearms. If we accept a Yale School of Medicine study that puts the number of preventable deaths at just over 22,000 a year in the United States, then you're about half as likely to "be killed by a doctor than a gun." With the CDC numbers of 46,072 deaths, then your odds are about even. In a Johns Hopkins University study that estimates 250,000 deaths, you're about 5.5 times more likely to be killed by a doctor than a gun. And in a Journal of Patient Safety study with an estimate of up to 440,000 deaths due to medical errors, your odds of being killed by a doctor are nearly 10 times higher.
So you're either half as likely to be killed by a doctor than by a gun based on a Yale School of Medicine study, just as likely to be killed by a doctor than by a gun based on CDC numbers, or 10 times more likely to be killed if we go off the Journal of Patient Safety study...
Medical errors cause thousands of deaths every year in the United States. According to the Journal of Patient Safety, medical errors contribute to more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, and that estimate only takes hospital patients into account.
COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS
INFORMATION FLOW
MEDICAL ERRORS
ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE
MISDIAGNOSIS
DELAYED DIAGNOSIS
PATIENT-RELATED ISSUES
STAFFING PATTERNS AND WORKFLOW
TECHNICAL FAILURE
INADEQUATE POLICIES
tldr::
You are not just most likely to die from medical errors, you're most likely to die from your doctor being a shitty communicator --- whether to you or their staff, not being trained right or them misdiagnosing you.
https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2022/06/fact-check-thousands-of-americans-do-die-each-year-of-medical-errors-but-its-unclear-whether-doctors-kill-more-people-than-guns.html
So you're either half as likely to be killed by a doctor than by a gun based on a Yale School of Medicine study, just as likely to be killed by a doctor than by a gun based on CDC numbers, or 10 times more likely to be killed if we go off the Journal of Patient Safety study...
TOP 10 MEDICAL ERRORS THAT LEAD TO DEATH
Medical errors cause thousands of deaths every year in the United States. According to the Journal of Patient Safety, medical errors contribute to more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, and that estimate only takes hospital patients into account.
COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS
INFORMATION FLOW
MEDICAL ERRORS
ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE
MISDIAGNOSIS
DELAYED DIAGNOSIS
PATIENT-RELATED ISSUES
STAFFING PATTERNS AND WORKFLOW
TECHNICAL FAILURE
INADEQUATE POLICIES
tldr:: You are not just most likely to die from medical errors, you're most likely to die from your doctor being a shitty communicator --- whether to you or their staff, not being trained right or them misdiagnosing you.