Prevention of Medical Errors: The Mandate for Change
Introduction
What is the number one concern for hospital executives in the United States? The answer may be surprising given that we are firmly planted in the 21st century and healthcare has made great strides in the last several decades. However, one of healthcare's biggest concerns remains patient safety. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000), hospital care is only 97.1% perfect. Even if hospital care were rated 99%, the error rate would still equate to 2,000 unsafe airplane landings per week, 22,000 checks withdrawn from the wrong account per day, 2,000,000 tax documents lost per year by the Internal Revenue Service, or 5,000 surgical procedures gone wrong. At 97.1% perfect, nearly 300 preventable deaths occur in hospitals each day. That is the equivalent of a packed 747 falling out of the sky every single day.
There is at least a 2.9% chance of experiencing a totally preventable adverse event if hospitalized. For 100,000 people each year, this experience leads to death. This is more than AIDS, breast cancer, or motor vehicle accidents. Preventable adverse events resulting in death ought to be zero. In the U.S. healthcare system, the numbers speak for themselves. According to the Institute of Medicine report, patient safety means "Freedom from accidental injury" (p. 18, Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000). To paint an even more graphic and urgent picture, the IOM report suggests that the national cost of medical error is huge. The estimate of preventable medical errors ranges from $8.5 to $20 billion annually.
