Read the statistics below to learn why it’s critical you play an active role in your own healthcare.
More than 50% of clinical guideline recommendations rested on the lowest level of evidence.
Mayo Clinic researchers reviewed more than 20,000 clinical guideline recommendations published from 2012 to 2022. In 11 of the 14 professional societies they examined, the lowest level of evidence meant expert opinion or limited observational data.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 2023More than 50% of healthcare workers in a study had seen coworkers take dangerous shortcuts or show poor clinical judgment. Yet fewer than 10% had fully discussed those concerns with the coworker involved.
The survey covered more than 1,700 healthcare workers at 13 US hospitals.
“Silence Kills,” VitalSmarts & American Association of Critical-Care NursesA national study estimates that about 795,000 Americans become permanently disabled or die each year because dangerous diseases are misdiagnosed.
“Most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences.”
The National Academies concluded this in its 2015 report on improving diagnosis in healthcare.
Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, National Academies, 2015Nearly 25% of hospital admissions involved harm caused by medical care, and nearly 25% of those events were preventable.
The study reviewed 2,809 hospital admissions at 11 Massachusetts hospitals.
New England Journal of Medicine, 2023