Medical errors leading to death: 44,000... 98,000... 195,000... 225,000... 783,000... Who to believe?

A few articles have been circulating the web over the past few months, covering iatrogenic deaths; that is, death caused by medical care or medical errors. (In case you're interested, Wikipedia has a very good definition of iatrogenesis.)

The Life Extension Foundation published a report in 2004, "Death By Medicine", stating that there were 783,936 deaths that were directly attributable to "conventional medicine." That's quite a number. That number ranks above cancer and heart disease as the number one cause of death in America. This caught my interest and attention when it was mentioned at digg.com.

However if you go to the American Iatrogenic Association, they will cite at least two other sets of figures:

• As originally published in the Institute of Medicine in 2000, "To err is human: building a safer health system." The report's authors concluded that 44,000 to 98,000 people die each year as a result of errors during hospitalization. That ranks it as the 6th leading cause of death in America.
• As originally published in HealthGrades.com, In-Hospital Deaths from Medical Errors at 195,000 per Year. The HealthGrades report also mentioned that the findings in the IOM study, noting that they were severely underestimated, and had limited their survey of patient records to only 3 U.S. states.
  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 2 million people annually acquire infections while hospitalized and 90,000 people die from those infections.

Wikipedia cites that in the year 2000, there were 225,000 deaths attributable to iatrogenesis.

Frankly, I don't know what to believe. However I did study the semantics and conclusions in the HealthGrades study, and it does appear unbiased and clearly written.