The Most Common Causes of Death in Hospitals and Healthcare Settings

How many people die in hospitals every year? More than 700,000 people die in hospitals or other healthcare settings such as clinics annually. Most people die of the same natural causes that brought them to the hospital in the first place. Nevertheless, a shocking number of patients die from preventable causes directly traceable to their hospital stay.

You can improve your odds of survival by understanding common causes of hospital deaths. If tragedy has already struck your loved one, you need to know whether it involved medical negligence so you’ll know whether to pursue a claim.

Historical perspective: What were some of the reasons why many people died in the infirmary?

An infirmary is a small medical facility, typically within a larger institution. Prisons have infirmaries, for example, as do cruise ships. Infirmaries treated a far greater percentage of patients in the past than they do today. The reasons why the death rate was so high include:

• Lack of modern medicine
• Poor sanitation
• Limited medical knowledge
• Inadequate staffing
• Malnutrition
• Contagious diseases
• Abuse and neglect

In today’s infirmaries the death rate may be higher because of the lack of medical equipment and expertise available in larger hospitals.

Leading causes of death in hospitals

Today, the most common natural causes of death in healthcare settings include:

• Sepsis
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Cancer
• Organ failure

Two of these causes of death amount to the top two causes of death in society as a whole—heart disease and cancer. Sepsis, by contrast, is a sometimes-unavoidable complication of medical procedures such as surgery. This condition kills over 270,000 adults every year.

Preventable causes of death

The following causes of death are much more likely to be preventable:

• Hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA or C. diff
• Various surgical complications
• Medication errors or overdoses
• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
• Physical injuries such as falls
• Communication breakdowns between healthcare staff

This list is extremely abbreviated. Nevertheless, none of these causes of death render death inevitable.

Medical errors as a leading cause of death

It can be challenging to find accurate medical malpractice death statistics. Medical errors often go unrecognized because most statistics do not even include medical errors as a possible cause of death. If a doctor makes an error during surgery that causes the patient to die from sepsis, the hospital will list the cause of death as “sepsis,” not “medical error.”

It is also important to realize that not every medical error amounts to medical malpractice. Doctors are not expected to be perfect. Medical malpractice, of course, always involves a medical error unless it is intentional. Medical error, by contrast, does not necessarily rise to the level of medical malpractice.

The sobering reality is this—at least one study, although highly debated, concluded that medical error is the nation’s third-leading cause of death. By this standard, only heart disease and cancer are deadlier than medical errors. Medical errors come in several different varieties:

• Diagnostic errors: Misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to diagnose. (e.g., misinterpreting test results, overlooking symptoms, failing to order necessary tests).
• Treatment errors: Mistakes in administering treatment. (e.g., surgical errors, wrong medication/dose, improper monitoring during procedures, nursing care lapses).
• Preventive care errors: Failures in follow-up, screening, or adequate monitoring to prevent worsening conditions. (e.g., missing follow-up appointments for at-risk patients, not performing necessary screenings).
• Systemic errors: Problems with hospital protocols, communication breakdowns, staffing shortages, or equipment failures. (e.g., outdated hospital policies, inadequate training, poor patient hand-offs).

The public is largely unaware of this because many of these deaths are attributed to the patient’s underlying condition on official death records.

Why medical errors are underreported

The short answer to why medical errors are underreported is “human nature.” More specifically:

• Culture of silence/fear: Healthcare professionals fear litigation, disciplinary action, or damage to their reputation.
• Complexity: Medical processes are intricate, making it difficult for outsiders (and sometimes even insiders) to pinpoint the exact moment or cause of an error.
• Attribution to underlying illness: Deaths are often officially attributed to the patient’s underlying disease, masking the contribution of medical errors.
• Lack of centralized reporting: No uniform, transparent system publicly tracks all medical errors and associated deaths.

The medical industry, as you might expect, is not particularly keen on exposing its own errors.

When a hospital death becomes medical malpractice

A hospital death due to medical error rises to the level of medical malpractice when the provider’s care falls below the level of a reasonably prudent and competent doctor practicing in the same specialty and under similar circumstances. Since most providers are competent, even below-average care might not qualify as medical malpractice.

Some examples of possibly fatal medical errors include:

• Failure to recognize and respond to signs of sepsis or organ failure.
• Surgical mistakes such as perforating organs or leaving instruments behind.
• Medication errors resulting in overdoses or fatal drug interactions.
• Delayed diagnosis of critical conditions like heart attack, stroke, or aggressive cancer.
• Negligent monitoring leading to a patient falling and sustaining a fatal head injury.

If your loved one died in a hospital, you might not know whether you have a viable medical malpractice claim. Securing medical records early is critical, as delays or inconsistencies in documentation can make it harder to investigate a potential malpractice claim.

The expert witness industry

Ultimately, you will need the help of an expert witness to even file a lawsuit. The use of expert witnesses is routine in medical malpractice cases, and both sides might call them. There are even expert witness agencies that can introduce you to an expert witness. Most medical malpractice lawyers maintain strong relationships with expert witnesses who they have worked with many times before.

What patients and families can do

If you suffered medical harm that you suspect may have been medical malpractice, you should take a proactive approach:

• Ask questions and advocate for yourself
• Seek a second opinion
• Demand clarity in medication and discharge instructions (so the defendant cannot assign partial blame to you)

The most important principle you need to remember is to act quickly if something seems wrong.

Let us fight for justice while you focus on recovery

If your loved one dies in a hospital or other healthcare facility, you might not be sure whether medical negligence was involved. That’s where we come in. Crandall & Pera’s personal injury attorneys serve medical malpractice and wrongful death victims in Ohio and Kentucky. We have won over $170 million for our clients, and we charge zero attorney’s fees unless we win your case.