The IoM report is here.
[link|http://books.nap.edu/books/0309068371/html/index.html|To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System]
From the Executive Summary:
When extrapolated to the over 33.6 million admissions to U.S. hospitals in 1997, the results of the study in Colorado and Utah imply that at least 44,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors.3 The results of the New York Study suggest the number may be as high as 98,000.4 Even when using the lower estimate, deaths due to medical errors exceed the number attributable to the 8th-leading cause of death.5 More people die in a given year as a result of medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).6
So, as is usual these days, the article takes the higher extrapolation (98,000) as the actual number of people killed in treatment related to hospital admissions when the true number isn't known and may well be much less. (Though these studies didn't consider outpatient errors, etc., so the grand total is probably much higher than the lower estimate.)
Also, the report make it clear that there are many reasons for injury and death in medical-care situations. These deaths aren't all caused by malpractice on the part of doctors. I know of an instance of someone sharing a hospital room with a friend's father who died as the result of a nurse giving him the wrong medication. The report makes it clear that drug errors are a very large fraction of the medical errors. Blaming "incompetent doctors" and the AMA for these deaths isn't fair, IMHO.
The report doesn't go into who's the primary source of the errors, though they have strong recommendations about improving the process so that errors are reduced.
Some brief testimony to Congress about the report is here:
[link|http://www.ahcpr.gov/news/stat1213.htm|Statement on Medical Errors]
Cheers,
Scott.
