An iatrogenic complication is an unfavorable response to medical treatment that is induced by the therapeutic effort itself. Although some are minor, others are life-threatening. Serious or fatal iatrogenic complications occur in 4 to 9 percent of hospitalized patients. One retrospective series found that 14 percent of cardiac arrests could be traced to an iatrogenic event.
Clinical errors contribute to about half of all iatrogenic events.
No matter how you analyze clinical errors the fact remains that they represent a level of medical practice that is below the accepted standard of care. In the law such errors are called medical malpractice or professional negligence. A significant portion of these complications may be potentially preventable with closer attention to initial assessment and documentation of patients' functional status. As a part of an interdisciplinary study of medical injury and malpractice litigation, the incidence of adverse events, defined as injuries caused by medical management, and of the subgroup of such injuries that resulted from negligent or substandard care, were defined. The investigators prepared a dictated summary of each patient's hospital course.