A study (full text $12) in JAMA pegs patient deaths due to medical errors at 98,000 per year. With a brief nod to significant improvements made in some hospitals, researchers go on to savage everyone but, well, researchers:

The researchers blame the complexity of health care systems, a lack of leadership, the reluctance of doctors to admit errors and an insurance reimbursement system that rewards errors — hospitals can bill for additional services needed when patients are injured by mistakes — but often will not pay for practices that reduce those errors.

I thought we were living in a mostly capitated world, where the vast majority of complications lose money for hospitals. Certainly improving patient flow by avoiding adverse events provides better financial results than turning a blind eye and hoping adverse events will line hospital's pockets. The hostility towards hospitals is surprising.

 But “we have to turn the heat up on the hospitals,” Leape says