I spend most of my time representing people who have been harmed by medical malpractice. These cases involve many types of serious errors, including botched gallbladder surgeries, spinal fusions that leave patients permanently paralyzed, and poor care in emergency rooms that results in death. My two law partners and I have seen just about every kind of medical mistake imaginable.
Not long ago, I had a conversation with a retired surgeon who is also a friend. He asked me whether I thought medical care was getting better. He believed that with electronic medical records and advanced testing, patients must be receiving excellent care. Based on my experience, I told him no—I believed medical care was actually getting worse.
After our conversation, I began to second‑guess myself. I wondered whether my view was biased because I only see cases where something has gone wrong. Maybe overall medical care in the United States really is improving, and I just deal with the worst outcomes. To answer that question, I decided to look at some data.
One important source of information is the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission is an independent, nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies more than 22,000 health care organizations and programs across the United States. Its main goal is to improve patient safety and the quality of care by setting strict, evidence‑based standards. The Joint Commission reviews hospitals, laboratories, and many other health care facilities.
According to the Joint Commission, wrong‑surgery events increased in 2024 compared to 2023. These errors made up about 8% of all reported “sentinel events.” A sentinel event is a serious medical error that signals the need for immediate investigation and action to prevent similar mistakes in the future. Wrong‑surgery events include operating on the wrong body part, performing the wrong procedure, operating on the wrong patient, or implanting the wrong medical device.
After reading this, I am not sure I have the heart to tell my doctor friend that, based on the evidence, medical care may actually be getting worse—not better.