When you use the word “standard” you are talking about something that has been established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model, example, or point of reference. Unfortunately, when you are talking about the standard of healthcare in this country you are no longer talking about the gold standard. In the US, malpractice is the new standard of care.
Leading Cause of Death
The medical industry today has lost its way. It has no compass. It is run by Big Pharma. Big Pharma has created a standard of care that itself is responsible for much death, injury, sickness, and side effects. As a result, our standard of care has actually become among the leading causes of death.
How many businesses do you know that want to cut their revenue in half? That’s why the healthcare system won’t change the healthcare system.” – Rick Scott
The Numbers
Here’s the breakdown. Annually, it is estimated that between 250,000 to 440,000 people die each year from “medical errors.” So, that puts medical errors among the leading causes of death.
What does the term “medical errors” encompass? According to data collected between 2017 and 2021, medical malpractice cases generally fall into three major categories: 26% of claims are related to failure to diagnose; 24% of claims are related to surgery; 28.5% of claims relate to improper treatment; and 5.1% of claims are due to adverse drug events. Additionally, there are claims regarding adverse reaction to anesthesia, lack of informed consent, or improper monitoring.
Really?
“I don’t blame anybody – they’re just doing what makes sense and we have to change what makes sense.”
Don Berwick – Former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator
But, let’s be clear. These percentages are the breakdown of filed medical malpractice cases. Since the 1960s, the number of malpractice lawsuits filed in the US has been on the rise. Approximately 250,000 cases are currently filed each year. However, that figure is nothing when compared to the findings of a 2017 study done by the National Patient Safety Foundation where 21% of American adults reported having suffered from a medical error.
Unacceptable
These actions all have lasting effects on the physical and emotional health of the patients and their families. Additionally, the financial well-being of everyone involved is threatened and in many cases destroyed.
This standard of malpractice is not acceptable. Clearly, the healthcare system is broken. The system and the people involved are doing the wrong things. However, because these problems happen so frequently to so many people and the instances are so under-reported, this has become the new standard of care. Malpractice is no longer malpractice. Everybody is doing it or has fallen victim to it. Basically, it’s become accepted. It’s our new standard of care.
“30,000 Medicare recipients die each year from care they didn’t need.” – Shannon Brownlee – Acting Director, New America Foundation Health Policy Program
Accountability is Gone
Literally, our healthcare system is getting away with murder. It’s getting away with injury. It’s getting away with drug reactions causing death. If physicians are following protocol and people are getting injured or dying, it’s no longer malpractice. Moreover, all accountability is gone.
So, how did we get here? Let’s be clear. We’re not saying that all healthcare providers are incompetent or evil. We’re saying that medicine in this country is no longer in the hands of the providers. The system has created legal medicine. As a result, the system answers to insurance medicine. Big Pharma is literally calling the shots.
What Makes Sense?
What we have today is a medical industry built around profit-driven care, not patient-driven care. Undeniably, powerful forces have abandoned prevention in favor of quick, expensive, and often deadly fixes.
“I don’t blame anybody – they’re just doing what makes sense and we have to change what makes sense.” – Don Berwick – Former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator
Your healthcare is being governed by, actually dictated by, someone on the 87th floor of a building in another city who doesn’t see you as an individual. You are a number, a statistic. Your healthcare is based on a risk assessment or the latest fad prescription or injection. That’s why it’s so important to find someone in your community who you can trust to be your go to person. Your point person for your health and well being. Chiropractors strive to be that.
You Set the Standard
Are you interested in surrounding yourself with caring providers who put your health and wellbeing above all else? Are you unwilling to accept malpractice as your new standard of care? If you want your providers to listen to you and not a pharmaceutical rep or accountant, then find a 100 Year Lifestyle provider near you. Set a higher standard of health for you and your family today.
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