Spotlight on medical errors

• Published in: Health Forum Journal Vol. 43; no. 2; p. 42
• Main Authors: Ignagni, Karen, Cutler, Charles M
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco The Healthcare Forum 01.03.2000
• Subjects: Best practice; Beta blockers; Clinical outcomes; Consumers; Data base management; Employers; Health care; Hospitals; Industrywide conditions; Information sources; Infrastructure; Medical errors; Medical malpractice; Medical records; Patient safety; Personal health; Physicians; Primary care; Uninsured people; United States > US
• ISSN: 1527-3547

Health care can be hazardous to your health. That was the unmistakable message delivered to Americans by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in its recent report on medical errors. The institute's principal finding did not come as news to health professionals, who have long been aware of the need to more systematically anticipate, identify, and eliminate errors. Now the question is: How is the nation prepared to respond? There is ample cause for concern about the direction in which the political debate may be heading. What is needed now is an increasingly comprehensive information infrastructure - a date-driven matrix of patient protection.