Deaths Due to Medical Errors

The Institute of Medicine's Quality Chasm series examines the mortality from avoidable medical errors and came up with between 40,000 and 98,000 annually in the US. HealthGrades estimates that it is double: 195,000 deaths. Forbes:

In any given year, between 40,000 and 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors [and a newer study estimates up to 200,000 Americans]. These mistakes account for as much as $38 billion in direct health care costs due to repeat tests, disability and death. And that's not even considering further costs arising from lawsuits and malpractice insurance. Incorrectly administered medicine is one of the most common errors. According to a recent study by researchers at Auburn University in Alabama, patients in the hospital may get the wrong drug 20% of the time.

Due to confusing names, similar packaging and complicated procedures, a handful of drugs are responsible for a surprisingly large share of the errors.... According to [MedMarx], five drugs were responsible for a quarter of all harmful [drug] errors...

Generic Name Possible Complications Indication Percent Of Reported Errors Insulin Coma, death Diabetes 9.2% Morphine Unconsciousness, death Pain 6 Heparin Bleeding, rashes, death Blood thinner 5.5 Warfarin (Coumadin) Bleeding, stroke, death Blood thinner 3.8 Potassium Chloride Stopped heart, death Heart disease 2.2

Sources: U.S. Pharmacopeia MedMarx, Forbes

The solution? Moving medicine into the digital age might be the best hope for reducing drug errors.  

This article was from 2003, but surprisingly little has changed and we still have worse electronic medical records than most developed countries. 
Interns are routinely kept awake for 24hr shifts which also leads to deaths. There is no medical or educational rationale for making the least experienced doctors work while fatigued and sleep deprived.  Doctors rarely even wash their hands in between touching different infectious patients and avoidable infections kill another 100,000 Americans.  You would think that malpractice cases would be enough to get doctors to make common-sense changes, but it is not.