Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Respiratory Diseases and Accidents (including car accidents) top the list for leading causes of death in the United States, but there is another killer that we are led to believe doesn't exist- death from medical error. Most individuals feel safe while checking in a hospital for a routine surgery and don't bat an eye before changing into the hospital gown and wearing the identity bracelet, but over the last decade hospitals have been revealed as a silent killer- sending relatively healthy individuals out of the hospital in body bags.

As an auto accident lawyer, wrongful death attorney and motorcycle accident lawyer, I understand why cars are considered dangerous weapons with 42,000 people dying in fatal car accidents every year. Sadly, there are 200,000 deaths due to medical errors or infections contracted in hospitals that go unreported and unnoticed.

Among the fatal injuries taking unsuspecting lives in hospitals are; operating on the wrong part of the body, physician prescribed drug overdose, accidental cuts and tears to organs during surgery, surgical tools left inside the body, bloodstream infections from improper use of catheters, and MRSA infections. And most of these injuries go unreported to the health department and the public.

This problem was brought to the public's attention ten years ago in the report "To Err is Human" along with a list of ways to help reduce the occurrence of these deaths. So with all of this knowledge about the growing problem: why do these deaths continue to go unreported?

Inadequate or lack of regulation: Currently, only 20 states out of 50 require hospitals to report medical errors and in the states that do require reporting only a small fraction of instances actually get reported due to lack of enforcement and consequences. Hospitals receive no penalty for withholding information about medical error.

Underfunded Programs: Another great problem is that programs for reporting this data are grossly underfunded. Washington State's program only has enough budget to fund one staff member and not enough is left over to actually analyze the results and put an annual report together. This problem is prevalent throughout the states requiring reporting: New York's funds ran out and hasn't published a report since 2004 and the law in Texas requiring reporting expired in 2007 as did the funds to support the program.

Lack of reason to report is a problem with Doctors who would lose more by reporting the error than benefit. While doctors risk medical malpractice allegations and discipline if errors are reported they alter death certificates to exclude any information that could link medical error to the patient's death.

The Bottom Line: Another problem with reporting is hospital may lose money. Not only do hospitals not want patients to go to another place for care do to a record of medical errors, but they lose money when procedures are done correctly the first time. One hospital that did the prescribed changed from the report "To Err is Human" reduced the number of re-hospitalizations for cardiac patients by simply ensuring medications were correct. This was great for the patients, but the hospital lost $3.5 million from simply doing things correctly.