The article quotes a questionable study that says between 98,000 and 44,000. Where did you get 120,000?
And since we're all extapolating today, here's some more. The 98,000 number was arrived at by examining hospital records in New York in 1984 and the 44,000 number is from Colorado and Utah hospitals in 1992. We can clearly see that in less than a decade, deaths declined by more than HALF. Following that trend, we can be assured that medical errors are now gone.
Obviously, my analysis is done in jest, but it does demonstrate the problems of taking these kinds of "studies" too seriously.
How many people does the average Doctor see in a year?
At current HMO requirements, I would guess one every ten minutes, fifty hours per week, for a total of 15,600 per year. Not including the fact that many of these cases are terminal no matter what, that working conditions and resources are restricted, that works out to an error rate of 1 in 91,228. Another way of looking at the number is that the average doctor goes 1/.171 = 5.84 years on average before making a fatal mistake.
Personally, I think I'm doing well if I go 5.84 years in my job without making a mistake! Be glad doctors aren't journalists, who can't seem to go 5.84 column inches without making a fatal mistake. We can't hold medical professionals to a standard that is impossible to keep, punishing them financially when they cannot achieve the impossible. I personally think this type of error rate is fantastic in such a very human, often confusing field.
I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I'm glad those who are doctors are persisting in the face of this nonsense. I would have given up long ago. It's already virtually impossible to get an OB in Florida, as insurance rates are $250,000 per year.
The looters and lawyers are at the hospital gates. Paging Dr. Galt, Dr. Jonathon Galt.