Readers React: Sen. Boxer: We need to start looking at ways to reduce deadly medical errors

To the editor: I was so pleased to see your coverage of a new study showing medical errors are the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S. Such mistakes kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, but for whatever reason this issue has generated relatively little attention. Your coverage will help change that. (“Medical errors are No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer,” May 3)

This subject has been close to my heart ever since I met Lenore Alexander, a Ventura County mother who lost her beautiful 11-year-old daughter, Leah, to a medical error.

In 2014, I sent an urgent survey to 283 acute care hospitals in California asking what steps they were taking to reduce medical errors, and included the nine most common preventable errors. Of the 90% that responded, some were using new technologies, like ultraviolet rays to disinfect hospital rooms. Others were taking basic but critical steps, like hand hygiene for all the hospital staff.

The Affordable Care Act is helping with incentives to reduce medical errors that have helped save tens of thousands of lives. But we have a long way to go when we lose 250,000 Americans to medical errors each year. It will take all of us — working together, sharing best practices, innovating and using common sense — to stop this hidden killer.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

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