The study is flawed in more ways than that. There are many assumptions made that are uncorroborated. You criticism is extremely valid, in that ANYTHING that goes wrong in a hospital is attributed to the doctor. This is the "captain of the ship" principle used by the malpractice lawyers [also known as the "deep pockets" principle: "he didn't actually do anything wrong, but he should have known the floor would be mopped and would still be wet after it was mopped, and that doctor has all that malpractice insurance after all, so HE is the one we will sue because that hospital patient fell, even though that doctor was in his office at the time"].
So if a nurse gives a wrong medication, and the patient dies, it is the doctors' fault. If a lab technician gives a wrong result, and the doctor acts on that result to protect the patient, and the patient thereby is harmed, it is the doctors' fault. There are liberal elements in the medical profession [ the AMA is full of them, I might add] that delight in self-castigation. This is the same liberal mindset that is responsible for the "blame America" attitude in the MSM. A lot of them are in the IOM as well. These people aren't taking care of patients; they are instead doing "studies"; thats how they get paid.
"Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death
in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year
This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is the best article I have ever seen written in the published literature documenting the tragedy of the traditional medical paradigm.
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This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which hit the papers in December of last year, but the data was hard to reference as it was not in peer-reviewed journal. Now it is published in JAMA which is the most widely circulated medical periodical in the world.
The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and she desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health.
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
12,000 -- unnecessary surgery 8
7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals 9
20,000 -- other errors in hospitals 10
80,000 -- infections in hospitals 10
106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs 2
These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!
What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a complication of treatment.
Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:
First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.
Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include negative effects that are associated with disability or discomfort.
Third, the estimates of death due to error are lower than those in the IOM report.1
If the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to iatrogenic causes would range from 230,000 to 284,000. In any case, 225,000 deaths per year constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even if these figures are overestimated, there is a wide margin between these numbers of deaths and the next leading cause of death (cerebrovascular disease).
Another analysis concluded that between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients experience negative effects in outpatient settings,with:
116 million extra physician visits
77 million extra prescriptions
17 million emergency department visits
8 million hospitalizations
3 million long-term admissions
199,000 additional deaths
$77 billion in extra costs"
So let's say "modern medicine kills people, rather than doctors." Happy now?
Or are they letting just anybody post goofy stuff in JAMA nowadays?