When I die — hopefully decades from now — I would like my death certificate to be as accurate as my birth certificate. Unfortunately due to current hospital conditions, that may not end up being the case. According to a recent ProPublica investigation, autopsies are ordered for only about 5 percent of people who die in hospitals.

Sure I probably will not care whether or not I get an autopsy — me being dead and all — but if I died as a result of malpractice, I would hope that Dr. McScrew-up’s mistake would be revealed and he would be held accountable.

A National Center for Health Statistics report revealed that from 1972-2007 the overall rate of autopsies performed on hospital patients fell by 50 percent. This drop is attributed to a lack of skilled pathologists, policy changes and the fact that autopsies cost about $1,275 and unsurprisingly are not covered by most insurance programs.  

The whole point of the autopsy is to audit the work of the health care system. It is not enough to simply attribute deaths to natural causes or assume that lupus was really what killed the patient. As we all know from “House,” doctors make mistakes sometimes — and it is never lupus. 

The fault is not always necessarily with the professional’s actions. Sometimes the patient dies of something other than the official cause of death. Even in these cases a great deal of knowledge could be gleaned from a simple autopsy.

Not auditing the health care system is like not auditing the oil industry. I think we all remember the Deepwater Horizon debacle, where dis-regulation led to an environmental catastrophe — the likes of which had not been seen since the Exxon Valdez spill. 

When doctors make mistakes it is humans who pay the ultimate price, not cute sea animals. Without an autopsy, entire families can be left in the dark as to the cause of their loved-ones’ death. 

Worse yet, without an autopsy doctors and nurses who accidentally cause the death of a patient are allowed to continue practicing medicine with no recourse. They are left free to make the same mistakes again.

The good news is that many hospitals will perform an autopsy for free if the deceased in question shuffled off their mortal coil at said hospital. Hospitals know that doctors make mistakes too. The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that up to 40 percent of the time the official cause of death is wrong. 

So sure, it could have been lupus, but do you really want to take that chance? In my book peace of mind is more important than avoiding ruffling the feathers of whatever doctor you dealt with. 

The medical profession is not trying to hide it’s faults. In fact they are more than willing to learn from their mistakes. You just have to hold them accountable by asking for an autopsy to confirm cause of death. Hopefully you never have to deal with such an ordeal, but at least if you do you can be sure.