Hi Liza, I was watching Today on NBC when the Institute of Medicine report was discussed by the principal researchers. The numbers refer ONLY to people who die in hospitals, which means that those who die in nursing homes and because of other mistakes are not included in those numbers. I remember that Ralph Nader stated a number of years ago that he believed that there were at least 300,000 people dying each year from medical mistakes and prescription mistakes. Says a lot for staying healthy! Kate