> Ive worked in direct patient care for over a decade. I can personally attest that medical errors is definitely the #1 (not #3) killer in the us. By a lot. Most errors and failures are not reported because they can easily be swept under the rug and no lne wants to ger in trouble or cost the hospital money. Bear in mind, it's not just straight up errors killing people. More likely, it's systemic failure due to understaffing. Checkups and medications not being done on time has serious effects on patient outcomes. Most nurses will joke that their primary job is to keep doctors from killing patients. They aren't joking. Probably an average of a third on nurses time on the job is spent trying to correct a doctors mistake or at least check to see if they've made a potential mistake. It's not even mostly carelessness on behalf of doctors (although it is common). There simply aren't enough drs to provide an adequate amount of attention to getting things right. Systemically, it's even worse. I dont want to dox myself but im more familiar with pharmacy and laboratory operations. These two departments spend a huge amount of time trying to catch and fix mistakes the drs AND rns make. It's a cascading problem. In these departments, it's usually minimally educated technicians catching and trying to fix errors made by the more educated rns and drs. Even worse, drs have nearly zero accountability for making errors. I have never seen or heard of a dr even being spoken to about the volume of errors they make, let alone reprimanded. Even if an error DOES result in a negative outcome, the blame almost always goes to the lowest paid person in the decision chain.