Approximately how many people die each year from preventable medical errors?

• A. 44,000-98,000
• B. 34,000-60,000
• C. 10,000-20,000
• D. 100,000-120,000

Answer: (A)

The question taps into how many people die each year from preventable medical errors, a major issue in patient safety. The best-known estimate places deaths in US hospitals at roughly 44,000 to 98,000 annually. This wide range comes from the Institute of Medicine’s influential 1999 report, To Err Is Human, which highlighted the substantial and preventable harm caused by medical mistakes such as medication errors, misdiagnoses, surgical complications, and hospital-acquired infections. The interval reflects uncertainty in data and methods, not a precise count, but it captures the scale that safety advocates use to push for improvements. While newer studies have refined methods, this range remains the most widely cited benchmark for the burden of preventable death in healthcare. The other options either understate or overstate the commonly cited figure and don’t align with this well-known estimate.