Take a Poll
Health Care: Have you suffered from a medical error?
Thank you for taking our poll.
Have you or a loved one ever been prescribed the wrong medication?
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Yes
If you answered yes, you are not alone. Adverse drug events with hospital patients are common and occur when mistakes are made procuring the drug, prescribing it, dispensing it, administering it, and monitoring its impact. On average, a hospital patient can expect to be subjected to more than one medication error each day according to the Institute of Medicine.46% -
No53%
5774 responses
Have you or a loved one experienced a hospital-acquired infection?
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Yes
Again, if you answered yes, you are not alone. Hospital-acquired infections are a leading cause of death in the U.S. One in twenty patients can expect to get an infection that is unrelated to their condition upon admission.42% -
No57%
5764 responses
Do hospitals in your state report their infection track record publicly?
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Yes7%
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No10%
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I don't know
Only 23 states in the U.S. have passed laws requiring hospitals to disclose the rate at which patients develop certain infection during treatment (CO, CT, DE, FL, IL, MD, MN, MO, NH, NY, NJ, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA and WV). By making infection rates public, these states are helping consumers find out their local hospitals infection prevention track record and providing hospitals with an added incentive to improve patient care.81%
5765 responses
What is the leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer?
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Auto accidents15%
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Societal violence and crime4%
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Correct: Medical errors and hospital-acquired infections
More than 2.6 million hospital patients are the victims of infections and medical errors every year and almost 200,000 of them die. This makes medically-induced harm -- errors and hospital-acquired infections -- the third leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease and cancer.79%
5687 responses